Needlework Poem by Gregg G Brown

I mend an image worn
By sitting, by fluffing, by naps:
A spatter of nasturtiums
In a delightful but unnatural pattern
Printed on the drugstore's
Two-dollar needlepoint kit
In 1983. Now I mend
A confusion of nasturtiums
Back to crimson, petal by petal,
A task for Ariadne
My spidery fingers finesse
In evocations of thread.
My heart dreads
I shall not survive to renew
This pattern again—
Some stranger's backside will come
To endorse all I've done,
All I've left undone...
My basket of needles long sold
Garage sales ago.
I pause my pace
And stare at the half-
Resurrection in my lap,
How the new infects the old,
How the old degrades
Beautifully as a sunset
By Turner perhaps, or some
Byzantine icon touched
By too many lips.