oneword #24 needle

needle

Roost inside your quilt of love
hide deep within its folds
the quilt will start to fill you up
and resurrect your soul.

Needle me a quilt of love
to wrap around my breast,
craft it from the articles
inside my cedar chest.

Jackets from my childhood,
the dress you used to wear,
when Joseph was a soldier
and you taught me about prayer.

Clothing that we wore through
days we never thought we’d see,
days of fire and brimstone,
days depleted of all glee,

days we loved each other,
days we walked the trails,
deep into the forest
where the deer and fox prevailed.

Use some of the hair I saved
from Joseph’s long black braid
stitch it in the batting
of the quilt you never made.

Take pieces of the red dress
the undertaker used
to lay you in your casket
your rouged cheeks looking bruised.

Thread them in the center
of a radiating sun
to wrap me up in silence
when another day is done.

This is what you told me,
this is what you said
about the power of a quilt of love
and now you lie there, dead.

Roost inside your quilt of love
hide deep within its folds
the quilt will start to fill you up
and resurrect your soul.