By Ali Cecilie Sonder
Submitted by RennieLorca
Date: 2002 Aug 14
Comment on this Work
[[2002.08.14.15.29.553]]

How A Stitch In Time Saved Nine Long Ago

In times of war with soldiers gone, women were left to worry and fend for themselves and family. The tragedies of these wives, mothers, daughters are often told, but their hopeful lives of love and romance are often lost or forgotten.

How a stitch in time saved nine long ago ...  

Today this simple mending chore 
  brought memories of tales from others
    I have listened to who knitted  
      in the cold to buy food to eat ... 

meager rations from refuse of 
  potato, beet, stale bread ...
    these starved hardworking mothers 
      ever grateful they weren't dead ...
    
creative stitches for survival as 
  hands labored to buy rotten cabbages; 
    life-bargaining with far-off gaze 
      while they dreamed of family and heat.

once young and vibrant women
  courted, wooed, wedded and bedded
    with flowers and candy and kisses, now
      memories locked in stitches to get fed.
               

(c) 2000 Ali Cecilie Sonder aka Rennie Lorca