women in my family sow,
but don’t sew,
don’t knit, and crochet hooks
are useless between our fingers
but give us a pen, a piano,
pastels,
or a paintbrush,
and we create like crazy;
we paint a cross stitch of wild mustard
captured in oil, spreading across a field
in front of a broken-down barn,
or write of the precise way
wild strawberries
sting your tongue
with sweetness & acid
at the same time.
We can even cook
with those wild strawberries;
that 1
domestic art we did pick up,
but, please
don’t ever
buy us a sewing machine.
It will collect dust
next to the embroidery hoops
& knitting needles
in the closet.
Susan Daniels Poetry 
I have nominated your awesome blog for the VERSATILE BLOGGER AWARD! Please check it out at http://expertofnone.com and Happy Bloggin’!!
oh, honey, I am so flattered but can’t accept right now–too new to this site to know who to nominate, etc. Check back with me in about another month, after I know how to do all that fancy linky-stuff you do, and we’re on, ok?
Deal!!! 🙂
Great poem. short but full of force.- The semantic and social significances of sew and sow say a lot – one conveying images of creativity, procreation, the other conveying conventional labour? These lines speak tonnes too –
“or write of the precise way
wild strawberries
sting your tongue
with sweetness & acid
at the same time.”
as they convey the specific defining attributes of your clan – your unique selling point as they say in marketing and biz strategy!
Reminds me of the scripture verse – “there is a variety of talents…”
Noel–beautiful! That’s it, exactly. This one came to me as I was washing my hair 🙂