“Advocate of Tender” was published in Florida’s National Poetry Forum in 1996. It was reprinted in Soto’s anthology, These are the Rooms to my Mother’s House. #cmsotostory

Advocate of Tender

The gift ivory box from our wedding day
sits locked and quiet on the corner mantle
beside our children’s camp photographs.

Man of so many broken tenders
—stepping on the toes of our promises—
I have slipped into your box too often,
pressing my ankles to collarbone to fit nicely
among the breakables of these rooms.

And our little tenders, our children, hide daily
among the yellowing newspapers in the cellar,
too tender for our jagging fingers.
Our words lull them to sleep,
rocked by the thunder of our broken voices.

This is our home
where breath hangs like phantoms
and this long chill brings you to my bed,
eyes watering, cursing,
bumping in the single frame of our tangled sheets—
toes knotted, we two, quite defeated.

How long will we wage this war of angels,
tossing our bruised tenders into that ivory box?

I wait quietly closed on the corner of the love seat,
weeping with the coffeepot tenderly tapping.
You butter your toast with the baby’s spoon.

You glance past me,
reminding with hard kisses.
Man of so many shattered tenders,
these walls shall fall from their standing,
cracking me from this ivory coffin,
until I unfold onto the floors of our broken home,
overlapping from the box where I exist
—between the holiday photos and bronzed shoes—
lips and feet unbound,
gasping from our tender tragedy.