Second Story
index:

             
AT NEEDLE POINT

On a green and gold chesterfield
She sits (thrust in, thrust out,
in, out, in, out, day in, day out)
needling a mockup of completion -
perfect half-stitches, crosses,
(left to right always) on canvas
affirming already posited patterns
of dandelions - gold flamboyancy
shuddering into soft, grey balls
of soon-to-be-ejected seeds.

Rapt in wool traceries
she maps Time - hums a tuneless song
of love (past lovers),
doing what she must do,
what there is left to do.

Fingers twitch, twitch,
stitch in an orgasm of needle setting,
blood let by needle pricks.
(Thrust in, thrust out,
in, out, in, out,
day in, day out).  

Night is a hungry dark
(needle in, needle out).
Fingers are finally full
of emptiness.
             

Second Story
by Mildred A. Rose

The
Mildred Rose
Collection

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Copyright 1976 by Mildred A. Rose,
all rights reserved.
Originally published by The Music House Press.
No part of this collection may be reproduced,
except in short reviews, without the
author's permission.