Dressmaking
They might have thought she was dead,
the sailors, as they docked opposite her door,
as if some trick of the light
would dupe them into seeing her propped
in a black box by the stove, but truly she’d be
dictating stitches whilst they crossed
the quay tilting cheap coffins and tea chests
onto the waiting carts. The date of her daughter’s
birth was the last thing she’d written
in thread, an epitaph before paralysis
struck. Cut it on the bias she’d call,
tack it back as the little girl’s fingers
clipped the fabric, felt it fall to a floor
numb with her mother’s sprinkled pins.
* Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch has published two collections of poems, the latest of which, Not In These Shoes (Picador, 2008) was short-listed for Wales Book of the Year 2009. She is currently working on her next collection.
