Embroidery Floss

Embroidery Floss – 2001
You chose me long ago…

I was bright Crayola red
amidst all the other threads,
and carefully picked out
I was pushed into
the skinny eye of the needle,
your pudgy fingers grasping at my ends
fraying them ‘til I was finally in.
you help me, pinching tightly,
looked up at your mother,
watching her put her needle
into the pillow
You took me
and with me did the same
pulling me in and out
the stretching, pulling on my threads
the painful scratching
of pulling through the pillow
over and over, in and out
dizzying monotony
in and out, over and over.
until one day you stopped pulling me through,
looping me instead
around your fingers
and pulling me tight to myself
gripping, so I couldn’t let go.

I,
now wound in and across myself,
have watched tv with you
have been soaked with your tears
and had your head rest on my threads.

I am frayed now,
old and worn
my threads torn and pulled out
I’m not as tightly sewn anymore
and no longer as bright a red

But I’ll watch you as you sleep.
I’ll comfort you as you cry.
I’ll love you as you loved making me.