Knitting

by Eileen Thalenberg

The crisscrossed knitting needles
sit idly in the skein of wool
like folded hands
when work is done.

She’s been gone
more than twenty years
and the half-finished scarf
meant for me
waits to be completed.

She never taught me how to knit.
Those were her private moments.
I look at the perfect, even rows
and wonder
what secret desires were remembered
and how many demons
were cast off stitch by stitch.

— from Juniper Volume 1, Issue 2