An Abiding Thread

Rita Mae Reese

You lived among men of constant sorrow
and sudden rage
and women of constant rage
and sudden sorrow,
who stitched and re-stitched
days together 
with an abiding thread 
made from music 
love and humor
all woven together—
that thread that you unspool
into the labyrinth of each new city
where you discover yourself over and over—
a feral girl waiting in the center
while all she doesn’t know 
multiplies around her