used condom

pass it maybe twice a day
since early december
coiled on a barren patch
midway between parking lot and picnic table
at Esopus Meadows
Have u ever watched a condom age?
They have seasonality, turns out
Which u wouldn’t learn from their typical trajectory
Of foil packet
To skin
To wastebasket
but after two heavy snowfalls
And a month-long succession of freeze and thaw
This protective sleeve
Once nearly translucent
is now opaque
And I imagine brittle
In its angular state of disuse
Sometimes I think to pick it up
To dispose of it properly
To complete the standard condom life cycle of
Foil packet to skin to wastebasket
And also to prevent the prophylactic
from being snatched up by a passing dog
or ingested by the resident pileated woodpecker
or great blue heron
Both of whom I am quite fond
But lacking a nearby wastebasket
Or sterile gloves or the memory to bring them
there it lies
Aging rather gracefully
Like the relationship of the folks who left it there,
I hope