Day 202

Poem for Nice Ladies Who Ask Me Where I’m From

I am as American as a patchwork quilt.
You can see what I’m made of: whatever
Ohio left over, what Kentucky has worn

through but not quite out. I used to be
something made by hand, backstitched
by fingers that made the last flicker

of a coal oil lamp a thing of use.
I am from generations, hives of women,
gathering around a wooden frame

to batten wool blankets into comfort and warmth;
three hundred years of Honeybees in the
delicate craft of Friendship Gardens.

(This is the work you don’t call art
‘til it’s under glass and far from home,
long time gone from the Cumberland Gap.)

Did you think I could be this beautiful
if I let your machine sink its teeth in me,
that gatling gun of electric stitches claiming to make

a Crown of Thorns? I am as lovely as suffering
and the marriage of unintended parts. I am
the beauty of the pattern found, and I want

all my seams to show.


- Mistinguette Smith

"Honeybee", "Friendship Garden" and "Crown of Thorns" are traditional American folk quilt patterns.

Northampton, MA
July, 2010

Thanks Mistinguette. I love it.





Something near me just got hit by lightening. Something so close I heard it explode, but I don’t see it anywhere, I don’t smell fire and I still have electricity. Thunder is rolling and rain is falling and it just sounds like somersaults being done by huge giants in the sky. Is that how Pete Seeger came up with Abiyoyo? Was he lightening and thunder? When Emma was three we used to talk about us being able to go out and play the song that brought Abiyoyo down. She could, too, you know.

I talked to Mom around 11. She is weak. She said she thought this might be it, but she didn’t know. She can hardly hear and she can only see what is in front of her.

I saw Patrick around 12:30. It felt good to hug. He is the best hugger, no doubt about it.

My heart feels unmanageable, it wants to reach out and it wants to hide all in one motion. It wants to scream and it wants to just pet a rabbit.

So I am on edge and thunder blasts. The phones haven’t started to ring and storm has passed, I don’t have to read too much into it.