Here is a geography
with no place
for distance, a love

that seams complete
in the scheme of purpose,
a declaration

of dependence between
mother and daughter,
embedded in cloth,

sensed from birth,
a secret belonging
to wholeness

whose order joins
each pattern
through the intricate

piecework of needle
and thread, a quiet grit
of resistance

passed down by design
to save the world
inside it.

Published in the 2012-12-21 issue: View Contents
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Barry Sternlieb’s work has appeared in publications including Poetry, the Sewanee Review, the Southern Review, and New England Review. His chapbook Winter Crows won the 2008 Codhill Press Poetry Prize.

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