Patching

by Melissa Taft
dinh pham dG35 kUxv34 unsplash

poem by Ana Lisa de Jong

I’m just glad I got through another day

with a little bit of beauty. 

It’s like patching a quilt. 

You choose the swatches of fabric you wish to keep. 

You select the thread. 

You carry on with immortalising it.

The memories you hope to retain 

made predominant, 

the colours made from feeling.

 

At night you pull it up to under 

your chin, or over your cheeks. 

Who can be cold or without comfort

with the best kept. 

Turned into the things we’ve

chosen to recall. 

The rest discarded to the pile

of cloth for which there might 

be a place one day,

a reason why.

 

In the meantime

a ‘comforter’ needs the things to

which our heart leans.

The softness of a safe embrace. 

The enfolding swell of down,

the cool of cotton.

The colours of the feelings that feel best. 

Yes, to get through another day

is just enough,

with beauty in it to retain.

 

Enough of which

to make a keepsake. 

The rest against which 

we can close our eyes.

Discard to the floor,

anything which doesn’t fit, 

or disturbs the vision.

Thank God we have a mind to choose, 

a heart to discern,

what it is our lives are made from.

 

Ana Lisa de Jong 

Living Tree Poetry

photo by Dinh Pham on Unsplash


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