When a seamstress loses the thread,
she becomes thorny: stitches
tighten in her gut and snakes breed
in her very soul, notwithstanding itches
in her fingers from tiny hollow hairs,
steeped in a poison that bewitches
and catches her unawares.
All fingers and thumbs,
and nettled by unforeseen hitches,
she waits for serenity and calm.
Kim M. Russell, 6th September 2019
My response to Imaginary Garden with Real Toads Kerry’s Weekend Challenge: Art Flash/55
For this weekend’s art collaboration, Kerry has introduced Cat Schappach, an illustrator in mixed media. Kerry says she is a marvel of dark surrealism, and I agree. Cat has given permission for us to use her piece entitled ‘Seamstress’. I have chosen to write an ekphrastic Flash 55.
writing in north norfolk 
Oh, wow! This is an inspired response to the artwork, Kim. I love the clever way you wove the rhymes throughout the lines – so many delicious ‘itches’ and word play. Love it!
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Thank you so much, Kerry!
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Now that is a wild picture, but you have done it justice! Love the stitches tightening in her gut!!
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Cheers Dwight!
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Oh that’s just right. (K)
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Woe to she who loses her thread
Seamstress in distress head will roll
I am hoping here that calm and serenity will come soon. This is a nice poem, Kim, even though pathetic things are happening to your hero. But at the end there was a show of hope.
BTW, growing up on a Nebraska farm we soon learned to avoid patches of stinging nettles.
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I once rolled down a hill and fell into a patch of stinging nettles – painful!
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Gorgeous wordplay in this, Kim! ❤️ I especially love; “All fingers and thumbs, and nettled by unforeseen hitches, she waits for serenity and calm.” 🙂
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Thanks Sanaa. I’ll be back to read yours in the morning. I’m reading on my Kindle before I go to bed. 😊
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In your fifth line, did you mean “form” instead of “from”? (in her fingers from tiny hollow hairs) Perhaps not?
You can please delete this.
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It’s ‘itches in her fingers from tiny hollow hairs’. They are stinging nettle hairs. 😊
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Ugh. Stinging nettles! Not being a sewer of any kind, I must take your word that losing a thread is frustrating. I only know when I lose my place braiding a pie crust rim. This is a wonder of similar words. All the itches speak to the frustration of the sewer.
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It’s the same with knitting, Toni. I’m about to embark on some sweaters for my grandson.
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Wow Kim! This really captures the image in wonderful detail…. 🙂
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Thank you, Rob!
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A vexed trope on the image which yet perfects it. Of course–that’s what one morphs into once they lose the thread. Delightful unwindings here with rhymes which nettle the hex. So well done, Kim.
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Thank you so much, Brendan!
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Your words described exactly what I thought of this maiden; she’s not all gentle flowers and such, is she?
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Not at all! 🙂
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😊
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Perfect for the image! Love the wordplay and the direction you took the poem.
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Thank you, Susie!
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Bewitching Kim!
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Thanks Linda!
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I love how you caught the title of the seamstress, the trouble the anger and frustrations which I feel is so much more than the actual thread… so much in life is about not loosing the thread and keeping it all together.
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Thank you, Bjorn.
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As a widower having to do my own mending I relate to this completely. Beautifully written.
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Thank you, Robin.
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I’m a quilter (kind of close to a seamstress)… I guess this is a prod to keep on sewing!
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Frustration from lost stitches, captured with magic by your words! Loved the internal rhymes!
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Thank you, Ginny!
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