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
- O Fool by Rabindranath Tagore
- The Rhyme of the Three Captains by Rudyard Kipling
- Pay your last respects by Vinaya Kumar Hanumanthappa
- In Memoriam A. H. H.: 83. Dip down upon the northern shore poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- At The Wedding March poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- The Seven Of Pentacles by Marge Piercy
- Note to Reality by Tony Hoagland
- Song—Sweet Afton by Robert Burns
- Ольга Высотская – Ежик
- Rhyme by the Bog by Robby Charters
- The Friend by Marge Piercy
- Memoriam A. H. H.: 67. When on my bed the moonlight fall poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Ballade Of Autumn poem – Andrew Lang poems
- The Heir Of Lynne poem – Andrew Lang poems
- O Bitter Sprig! Confession Sprig! by Walt Whitman
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).
