Making Ends Meet, poem by Teisha Dawn Twomey

A good rule of thumb, is to pull the fine thread
through a length twice the stretch. Wind the string

in a semi-cir­cle to make a loop, pull the ends
through, tie the split twin tails taut together

knot­ted twice or triple to be sure it all stays
put as you hem the mend left to right.

It takes patience. When the sky is com­ing undone
and the con­stel­la­tions are somersaulting

the sheer drops reel­ing around you.
You must not let your­self slip through

this wind­ing trap. Become noiseless,
hook and fas­ten your­self to the center

of the vacant, vast­ness. Breathe then heave
the wee fiber of your being forward

begin dou­ble stitch­ing your own backbone
to the bar­ren land­scape of this reality

once you anchor your­self you may begin spinning
your own cob­web, the wrong way up, just for fun.

Catch the eye of the near­est din­ner guest, a fly.
You always have been good at get­ting attention.

Teisha Dawn Twom­ey is the poet­ry edi­tor for Wilder­ness House Lit­er­ary Press. She received her MFA in Poet­ry at Les­ley Uni­ver­si­ty. Her poet­ry and short sto­ries have appeared in numer­ous print, as well as online poet­ry reviews and jour­nals. She is the Resource Spe­cial­ist at Spring­field College's Boston cam­pus and her first poet­ry col­lec­tion "How to Treat Pret­ty Things" will be released by River­haven Books lat­er this year.