Mending Socks
by Martin Willitts Jr.
Based on Archibald J. Motley’s painting “Mending Socks”, 1924
She has mended a generation of socks.
She is old as the waxed fruit in the bowl.
Her hands are furrowed as years in the fields.
There were times when she felt
like she would never be done,
she would find herself repairing the hole in the dark.
She would work in her dreams, always
picking threads of cotton.
I would find her in her chair, a soft snore,
the socks on her lap like sad tired children.
I would try not to disturb her, pulling a blanket up.
She would look at me with woolen eyes.
What do think you are doing? I am not done.
When she was in a casket like a knitting basket,
I expected her to scold me for coming home late,
for forgetting my skin was nightshades,
for gambling and consulting with shameful women,
for wearing toes through my socks
like I never seem to care how much it cost to get new ones.
When I saw her with a darning needle in her hand,
I burst into a carnal cry for the years spent wasted.
One of her grandchildren tugged me on the cuff,
Are you the one she loved as much as sewing?
I knew then a generation is held together by threads.
End of the poem
15 random poems
- The Perfect Sacrifice by William Cowper
- Maktoob
- Robert Burns: Young Jockie Was The Blythest Lad:
- The Lotus by Rabindranath Tagore
- The Pleasures Of Friendship by Stevie Smith
- Women’s Song Of The Corn poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- To The Rev. Mr. Newton : An Invitation Into The Country by William Cowper
- The Toucan by Shel Silverstein
- Bivouac on a Mountain Side. by Walt Whitman
- Searing Heat by Satish Verma
- Specula by Thomas Edward Brown
- The Talisman poem – Alexander Pushkin
- In A Wood by Thomas Hardy
- Владимир Маяковский – О патриархе Тихоне
- Sound And Sense poem – Alexander Pope
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Quant.com – a search engine from France, and also an alternative, at least for Europe
Yandex – the Russian search engine (it’s probably the best search engine for image searches).
