The BlueIris Semi-Nightly Poetry Break, 8/3/09

"How It Was That I Made My Earth & Sky Pin Cushion"

When I was very much
pregnant for Andy & had
moved back

to the small town I'd
grown up in,
back to my parents,

I signed up for this
needle-point class
at a lady's house.

Four or five women
gathered one evening a week
& the lady
taught us some stiches.

It was my favorite
night of the week.

There in the burnt
cedar smell of her fire,
stew cooking,
mothballs & perfume,
so heavy, so

housebound, but free
of my oh-so-wrong
marriage, I basked

in the fuzzy, warm, family
grooves of her
overstuffed
chair, the hand-crocheted
doilies on couch arms & tables,

the colors
          I chose, shocking
to all the other ladies:

cobalt blue, moss green
& mahogany, but they
honored with praised
the textures I made,
          the more or less even
slant of each stitch.

~Joan Dobbie