embroidery
three/five: a poem on life
I have not seen you stitch a smile in some time—
though you must know how to, surely?
you have woken amidst too few sunrises to have
already unlearned innate skills of life – too young
to step through days with toes helplessly curled
against needlepoint floors, yet here you are.
you may someday discover a hatred for me, who claimed
love but never tended to your pierced feet: I am sorry
I have not seen you stitch a smile in some time—
but the mirrors in our home whisper of your light.
perhaps your lips curve when I am elsewhere,
spinning golden thread into haphazard shapes
that I cast onto our floors in exasperation. somehow
you always pick up the split ends I leave behind,
as you have come to do with your own pieces
since I never return to weave you back together.
I have not seen you stitch a smile in some time—
even if your sorrows cannot say the same.
in my heart swims a cloak of equal parts love and fear,
all for you, despite how you have flourished
without your shoulders ever tasting its warmth.
never have I seen anyone of your youth dance so skillfully
atop bleeding needlepoints: dare I say I am proud,
even if I will never deserve to be.
I have not seen you stitch a smile in some time—
though you must know how to, surely.
@ellowrites @ellopoetry @apoem_4u #poetry #poem
