PULL

Pull yourself together,

they said.

As if I were yarn,

loose-stretched, ragged

at the edges;

a shapeless form

on life's hard block.

But the tears had knitted

in my soul, with needles

piercing deep;

a shimmering sheet

of memories

to shawl my troubled sleep.

Pull yourself together,

they said.

As if I could take

the strands, taut-tattered,

tired and torn,

and thread them through

again, on life's hard block -

so I did.

83 (c)