Poem of the Week, by Dorianne Laux

Haiku, 1 July Poem of the Week, by William Stafford

Poem of the Week, by Dorianne Laux

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Needle and Thread

- Dorianne Laux

It was the sixties, and embroidery was back in,

and if you had jeans torn at the knee, an old

denim jacket, a plain white shirt or a cloth

handbag, I might ask you what you liked

then spend hours alone in my room

with your favorite colors, woven threads

luxurious as a young girl’s hair, practicing

the chain stitch, cross stitch, running stitch,

satin stitch across your ripped skirt until

flowers and suns unfurled, a blustery field

of violet iris, a blind yellow meadow or a deep ravine

that scrolled down your back or pants seam,

red ferns blushing your blouse above

a clavicle, daisy chains circling your cuffs.

I’d return your garment on a day you had almost

forgotten about it, baggy T-shirt, ragged shorts,

laid across my arms so the crewel work

shimmered, patchwork of hearts, patina

of wings, like the riven marble draped

beneath Christ’s Pieta, folds catching the light,

offering it up as a sacrifice, asking nothing in return,

though you bowed your head over it and touched it

with your whorled fingertips, the veined leaf

or cresting wave, frothed, feathered, spiders’ webs

and fleur-de-lis, peace signs and scepters and stars,

then looked up into my face like an alien being, you

who I hardly knew.