Unravel: A Poem + Prompt
- May 28
- 1 min read
Updated: Jun 22
From a prompt in a writing class with Adam Dalva.Thank you.
Unravel
Like split-seam & fray
Like disengage & disentangle
To separate the threads
To cause something to come apart
as if by separation
But there is meaning beyond
these batch updates
One sewn in mind and sinew
A label that points
to a kind of madness
An unspooling
I am mad
Don’t you see
uneasiness & unworthiness
come so easily in this system
It’s unnatural this state of striving
Our bodies on constant
high alert
A false safety offered
in rules & standards
expectations & definitions
A constant striving
to do
to meet its demands
to produce
Like the relentless
strike after strike
of the needle bar
as it pierces throat plate & fabric
Even the words of our co-women
shame us for not being enough
Not wife enough
Not mother enough
Not man enough
Enough.
I don’t want to keep it all together
Keep quiet keep watch keep time
In this ready-to-wear cotton mill
Discard the tightly wound bobbin
Enough.
Let the unravelling begin
Prompt: Select a word. Define it.
Then shift to the personal...see what comes up.
Go with it. Flow with it.
