I remember you

implacable in the face of my anger

my technical difficulties

fixed by your steady fingers

tying and retying the knot with such gentle patience

even as I yelled and cried, threw things, disintegrated myself

and rebuilt myself in sequence three times, four times, banged my head

against a wall, and you saying take a breath, trust

my impatience a swarm of bees of wasps mosquitoes and you saying did you try this

and my rage like a fire catching and directing itself at you and your

thumb and pointer fingers on the shoelaces and there,

somehow,

it was released,

it was mended.