After Embroidering the Earth’s Mantle by Remedios Varo
With eyes downcast,
Obediently
Embroidering Earth
Soil tapestry
The matrons watch
Panoptically
Their charges sew
Alchemically
No Cluny lace
Nor Genoese,
Filet crochet,
Nor silk Maltese
A quilt of fields
Patchwork of tree
Mountain duvet
Crust filigree
Our eye alights
On one jeune fille
Whose needle paints
Subversively
In her tableau
An unnamed He
Appears in thread
Clandestinely
Upon her hands
A thimble, She
Sews unbeknown
A silken sea
To speed the ship
Her lover steers
And stitch by stitch
Her lover nears
Image available at: https://www.arthistoryproject.com/artists/remedios-varo/embroidering-the-earths-mantle/
Nancy Adams is an academic librarian, medical educator, and poet living in central Pennsylvania, near Harrisburg. Her poetry has been published in several central Pennsylvania publications, including the Patriot News and State College Magazine.