The Quilt Maker

            needles, pins, scissors

she gathers the outgrown, the too often mended

            cuts apart the once whole

searches out greens, lavenders of distance

grey stone cutting the sky

aligns slashes of triangle    long strips

short strips     squares 

a making whole again

a making of warm

she threads her needles in black

            embroiders barbed wire knotted around stakes

            tangling her view     barriers are this way

remembers laundry on barbed wire    

            wind rips and tears                

wiped on a shrug of sleeve

years become bits of cloth

needles piercing through     

all the days come together

a gift

for each child cut away