Leather Ribbon

[dukealien]

Your stone flower
has always been wilted.

The knots that you tie
are stretched and tanned
to hold forever,
with no bow.

This one is a mystery to me. One senses a reference, an allusion, but nothing quite comes to mind. The images, though, are quite clear (but bows are, I'm thinking, not a cause of knots holding). Unless "bow" is the -and-arrow kind...

Sorry, not getting it. My bad.