point of departure

(for Margaret)

Image credit: Diane Labombarbe

                                
“my father never needed a map,” she said.
“if he had been somewhere once, 
 he could get there again.”

the quilt is bigger 
than she is, but the mosaic 
of her is so much more 
than any sum of parts. 
her stitches unite a landscape 
of memories. she sews by hand 
at times, snipping the threads 
trapped between loss and living. 

i am a patchwork, 
scraps with no clear destination. 
          secretly, i pretend i am her daughter.