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
- Владимир Британишский – Дым отечества
- Зинаида Александрова – Кролики
- The Passing of the Elder Bards by William Wordsworth
- Robert Burns: Ca’ The Yowes To The Knowes:
- Владимир Маяковский – При свободной торговле… (Главполитпросвет №232)
- Middle-Ages by Siegfried Sassoon
- I hear the roar of a Harley… by River Urke
- Suppressed Stanzas of “The Vision” by Robert Burns
- The Betrothed by Rudyard Kipling
- Considering The Snail by Thom Gunn
- Distributive Trade II – The Wholesaler
- Psalm 82 poem – John Milton poems
- Moving In Winter
- Владимир Маяковский – Венера Милосская и Вячеслав Полонский
- Fabrication Of Ancestors
Some external links:
Duckduckgo.com – the alternative in the US
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).
