Mesquite Bend: Mamas

The Quilters

These women cook three squares
from scratch, from before the sun
peaks over the long horizon
until it sends its last daily blaze
setting west.  They grasp

gleaming counters despite the glint
of dust hanging ever-present
in the air around them.  Kids

home from classes start chores
as constant as the clock
ticking away the days over the sink
in every kitchen.  Bingo

and bake sales, simple pleasures,
like potluck dinners Sundays
and the sound of husbands
tinkering with tractor or car engines
mean more to these than the trend

for short skirts or platinum hair.
Saturday afternoons, they circle
in the basement of the Baptist church,
a round of quilters making memories
for the town’s babies and newlyweds,

these patterns, more than swatches of cloth,
but fibers of blood and tears
that pulse in their very cells.

Ramona Levacy
April 29, 2015