Sewing
by Bruce Meyer
Each darting plunge
like fortune’s wheel –
the bobbin spinning
to her toe’s touch,
her tongue locked
between front teeth –
such concentration
held our lives in check;
or when she’d baste
my sister’s puff sleeve
or hung nautical drapes
to keep nightmares out,
she’d snip a length
as if to cut a cord,
then pull a seam
to test its strength
on a wear-worn dart.
Piece by patient piece,
she fashioned our lives,
a Singer, her delicate art,
racing to beat the light,
dancing on heads of pins,
repeating patterns of memory,
until line held tight.
Bruce Meyer is author of more than 60 books of poetry, short fiction, non-fiction, and literary journalism. He won the Gwendolyn MacEwen Prizes in 2015 and 2016. His most recent books of poetry are the award-winning The Seasons, The Arrow of Time, and 1967: Centennial Year.