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 Dunciad: Book I. poem – Alexander Pope
- Psalm 84 poem – John Milton poems
- Second Epistle to Robert Graham, Esq., of Fintry by Robert Burns
- Black Pine Tree In An Orange Light by Sylvia Plath
- SCULPTURING by Satish Verma
- Eavesdropper by Sylvia Plath
- Николай Некрасов – Вступление к песням 1876-77 годов
- Олег Бундур – Если вы придёте в лес
- How I Walked Alone in the Jungles of Heaven by Vachel Lindsay
- Again And Again, However We Know The Landscape Of Love by Rainer Maria Rilke
- Goliath Of Gath by Phillis Wheatley
- Михаил Кузмин – Уж не слышен конский топот
- Tell Me
- Владимир Маяковский – Две культуры
- The Do’set Militia by William Barnes
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).
