Mending Her Wedding Gown She Questions Domestic Notions
 

When was the last time you took thread's
end in your mouth to wet it, guided
it through the slit and pulled
until it's midsection straddled
metal, a hair's breadth hidden
by the eye's shiny tunnel?

When was the last time you dangled
the needle, held thread's ends,
looped them, slipped them loose
through the O they made, tightened
the noose's primitive knot?

When was the last time you stitched
the needle through a yardage skin, diving,
resurfacing, under and over,
under and over, until your measured
strokes brought shore, repaired
the wake of a tear?

When was the last time you pinched
the needle, mended a dropped
hem, a split seam, on a dress
you wore when the world ran
its eye around you?

When was the last time you pushed
the needle to the other side,
found a plush pad, a scarlet bead
crowning the cushion like a red pinhead
lodged in the fabric of your thumb?

When was the last time you clipped
the needle free with your teeth, scrapped
loosed thread, housed the needle
in its paper bed?

When was the last time that you bled?  

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Cati Porter is the editor of Poemeleon: A Journal of Poetry. Her poems have appeared in or are forthcoming from mamazine, Literary Mama, MotherVerse, Poetry Midwest, Poetry Southeast, and the anthologies Bedside Guide to No Tell Motel -- Second Floor (No Tell Books), White Ink: Poems on Mothers and Mothering (Demeter Press) and Letters to the World (Red Hen Press). Visit her blog at http://catiporter.wordpress.com.  

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autumn 2007 | kaleidowhirl
books and chapbooks from authors in this issue