Sewing Lesson

Used to be chicken feed
came in cloth sacks
stamped with bold flowers
like calico, only coarse,
beat till the dust was freed.

Beulah pinned them tight
with paper patterns,
cut enigmatic pieces,
sewed away each afternoon.
'Finish carefully--they may fray
but won't unravel,' she'd say,
trimming with pinking shears
that left marks like a bobcat's bite.

Sure enough,
through life's alterations-
the pinning, cutting
sewing and trimming-
I 've frayed,
but not yet unraveled.

Neca Stoller


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