Finishing Touch

We were basted together

In a running stitch,

Cut and pieced with others,

Sewn loosely, then set aside--

A forgotten project

Tossed into a hope chest where

Slowly the stitches rotted:

Dreams forsaken...

Over time, we found ourselves

Appliquéd onto other comforters,

Paired with other squares,

Part of the scrap bag

We placed ourselves in with

Our decisions,

With commitments only to trends

And wild-patterned friends.

Until, seams ripped from

Unseemly unions,

We existed for a while isolated

And neglected,

Rags in random bags of cutaways,

In separate assortments--

Too classic our colors,

Too faded, smelling of dank rooms

And incense...

But remembering our early

Brilliance,

A creative hand

Brought us together,

Cleaned the fabric of our souls,

Joined our savage selvages,

And serged us in a seam

Stronger than the heartstrings.

We are the art of combined

Pattern and color:

Batiked Prayer Flag in the wind,

Announcing the travels

Of love

And the hope for peace,

In the service of

Warmth, shade, protection…

Together

By choice and divine design,

All that matters is the binding that 

Sutured our hearts together,

So that it is hard to tell by feel

Where one of us ends
And the other begins...

But looking beneath
Our joined surface,

Anyone can see:

That hidden seam is

Our Finishing Touch.

Finishing Touch Quilt by Kelley Suzanne McCrory