Sewing

Sewing

I cut orange and white cotton rectangles,

squares of red and blue balloon-prints,

pink and rose calico strips.

I pin one fabric on top another,

Stitch thin, two-piece sandwiches,

remember your thin frame swaddled

in velour turtleneck and pants.

I feed fabric under my machine’s

silver foot and needle,

line up quarter-inch hems.

I accelerate the motor, hope to drown

sounds of your pinched breaths,

the sight of you wracked by cramps. 

I snip threads, remember days

we shopped at the weaving center–

fingered linens, weighed wools.

I fill an empty bobbin, remember 

you snug and warm in that ankle-length,

mohair coat you bought on sale at Macy’s.

If only these memories could warm your shivering–

this quilt I’m sewing soothe your waning.

Author: Margaret Plaganis

On OMPJ

Photo Credit: Kateryna Shevchenko on Unsplash