Loose Knit
by Michael R. Burch

She blesses the needle,
fetches fine red stitches,
criss-crossing, embroidering dreams
in the delicate fabric.

And if her hand jerks and twitches in puppet-like fits,
she tells herself
reality is not as threadbare as it seems ...

that a little more darning may gather loose seams.

She weaves an unraveling tapestry
of fatigue and remorse and pain; ...
only the nervously pecking needle
****** her to motion, again and again.

Published by The Chariton Review, Penumbra, Black Bear Review, and Triplopia. Keywords/Tags: Addiction, needle, veins, stitches, red, blood, ******, dreams, hallucinations, seams, darning, tapestry

his words are stitched
into the fabric of her soul.
her smile is here to stay.

Scars of stitches
Map the years
And my moments of bad
Decisions

A fall here
An accident there
Times when the hurry just
Wasn’t worth it

Two or three stitches
Never more than five
The cuts were
always small

But I hated blood
And needles more
So they were never
Fun.

I am not a poised person
| Nor am I a delight to hear
| But I am a truth warrior
|a knight for deeper meaning
|and a contender for reality
|So I speak my restless mind
|on the matters that matter most
\ and for this I am sutured.
| my mouth sewn shut
| by the red and yellow tape;
|political correctness
/ diminishing the truth
|until nothing is ever said
|And I weep
. Silent tears

she was thinking again
about the seams in her legs
the stitches
and weeping.
it terrified her
the blood gushing out
torn skin
the flavor of pain
her eyes were locked open
and she stared at the seams
tears pouring from her sewed-open eyes
she sits on her pile of ashes
her blood mixing
making a muddy paste
that crusts on her eyelashes
her bruised cuts growing on her flesh
opening
and reopening
maggots gnawing on her body
eating the remnants of flesh
and she stares.

“life isn’t fair”
is what they keep telling me.
and they’re right.
it’s a cruel joke.
life gave you to me a thousand times
with every intention of ripping you away.
i kept trying to stitch us together,
make us one.
“no one can take you now.”

but the stitches ripped out
causing a wound that required surgery

no wonder i’m still hurting

a needle
a spool of thread
you offered to sew me back together
you helped take the stitches out
of the wounds you made