STITCH & BITCH
The women settle, their needles
click in thick air. At the
window one heart-red geraniumlists toward light, three paper
whites wrest from fisted bulbs,
their roots worm about the smallstones. The coffee steams, cakes
slant on the sideboard beside the
china plates and cream, spillsof yarn pool in russet and brown,
threads tangle in their wicker
baskets. All afternoon talestwirl in many colors, births and
deaths, orange, maroon; all afternoon
the woodstove crackling, fingersflying, while the sea toward the
mainland raves in fury. Foam on the
shore rocks, spittle on the panes.Jan Bailey, from Heart of the Other
Reprinted by permission of the poet