For Women's History month I've again dug into Zero One Zero Two. I'd not really considered before that this is a very women centred book - apart from the main protagonist being a 200 yr old female :) - anyhow - this piece is called The Point - and as I previously explained - in this novella the forward narrative is in prose but there are a handful of reflective pieces that are poetry. Here is The Point.

I used to sew
What joy there was
A needle has a point
In and out
It holds disparate parts
Together
A woman’s job
Not tailoring
Which suggests fashioning to make fit

Sewing
Holding things together
Making something useful
Mending
Darning
Quilting
Hemming
Letting out
Tucking in
Padding, patching, unpicking,

In fifteenth century Europe
On discovering she was pregnant
A woman would sew her shroud
Shrewd
She understood fate’s thread
And the point
Of life

The Bayeux tapestry shows a tale
The only tale
Of death
In stiches
Apt

I loved to sort through buttons
I kept them in a jar
As had my grandmother
Like sweets
Encapsulated
Each button for a garment
Each garment for a person
So much time to sew each disc
Pearl or plastic
Wood or bone
Thank heavens for zips
Velcro
Elastic

But, the button…
Butterflies on a bodice
Pearls on a jacket
Sequins on a gown
Missing on a school cardigan
Home-made clothes - a loved child
A stitch in time
But time unravels

I sewed a wedding dress
And the stiches held
Though the marriage did not
I sewed party frocks
With the steady thrum of a machine
Wheel spinning
Reminiscent of
The spinning Jenny
Poor girl

The calm concentration of the hand-held needle
Occasional miss
Prick
Blood
Suck
Continue
Love is in that garment

But later mothers did not sew
Children stitched
Their childhoods spent in shadow
Crouched
Hunched
Prick
Blood
Cry
Continue

Sewing no longer held things together
Cheap production
Cheap lives
Mocked wasted efforts

Still I mended
A meagre substitute
For making

There was a needle but
No point

*
Next time I hope to post a comedic excerpt from my novel The Companion Contract to coincide with the e-version being on offer on Amazon from March 22nd.