Catherine Weiss

Today I’m Making Friendship Bracelets

except I usually give up before they’re done
so I’m just making keychains or what feels like
extravagantly pointless scraps of effort.
I’m concentrating hard to tie one fucking knot
to another fucking knot, in the proper direction,
in the right order, with the appropriate string.
I learned the techniques from a teenage girl’s
Youtube channel, follow patterns created
by other teenage girls. Friendship bracelets
take so long to make, there’s no point
in selling them. Labor cost is too high. A friendship
bracelet is created to be given. I was thinking of you.
I was thinking of you for twelve hours with colorful string
wrapped around my fingertips. It’s not quite prayer
but it’s not not prayer. I think it’s devotion,
about which a teenage girl would have a lot to say.
Teenage girls are great teachers, if you listen.
Today’s lesson is on despair: looking ahead
and foreseeing years of humiliating ritual. What now,
I ask. Teenage girl replies, look at your hands.