January 15, 2017 The Sunday Wordle #282/ Tiny Stitches --Poets United Poets Pantry

Wordle 282:

Tiny Stitches

as a girl         my mother and my grandmother              taught me to stitch

my grandmother             a quilter                            always on the back of her chair

hung the scrap bag      she would sit and rock               with her tiny stitches

create little squares and triangles     to be put into a quilt      she was known and admired

by all who knew her       for her tiny stitches             following the drawn pencil lines

circles and squares          a blanket of warmth                         based on geometry

as alice walker said of her mother        she was an artist                in her flower garden

at that time                most women were not encouraged                   to create paintings

so they created gardens               made quilts                         and nurtured their families

perhaps i am an artist         because the women before me       didn't think they could be

weren't allowed        sometimes a women could work for a man      paint the backgrounds

but weren't encouraged        to make their own statements             or paint what they liked

blue ribbons aren't often awarded to        (just) mothers                      who hauled water

singed the feathers from the chickens        cooked sunday dinner      woman would become

the author of their own destinies        claiming what was their's         often considered shrill

as if after a long sleep                 they are wakening           they would climb to the peak

break the glass ceiling        often forgetting what women before them     have gone through

making their lives possible     possible to have a sense of themselves         without apology

January 15, 2017