The Needle’s Point
1
The accumulation of years
of hands at work,
of women’s hands, connecting
a patch to a quilt
a history to a life.
2
The splinter’s foe,
the pimple’s demise,
the disease’s downfall,
the split skin’s savior.
3
Leaning down,
another bent back,
broken,
paid for in pennies a day.
4
The Queen
of the pin cushion,
her thread,
a trail working
its way
among her subjects.
5
The machine’s motion
quick as a blink
sewing, between
the silver foot, a cuff
to a sleeve, a seam
to a side, a collar
to a shirt, buttoned
into proper.
6
The surprising find,
hidden, as it was,
in a drawer of socks
7
The ink’s design
shyly peeks above
the low-cut pants,
or struts about,
in full color, demanding
it be seen.
8
The hands that
guide the shot
through
the tree branches.
The eye where
camels and rich men
gather.
The heart where
daughters reside.
The body that
threads in and out
the party’s chatter.
9
Talk, in a circle
of manners,
each stitch
a thimble of truth.
Ronald J. Pelias spent most of his career writing books, e.g., If the Truth Be Told (Brill Publications), The Creative Qualitative Researcher (Routledge), and Lessons on Aging and Dying (Routledge) that call upon the literary as a research strategy. Now he just writes for the pleasures of living in bafflement.
Thin Air Magazine 