Stitches

Elisa A. Garza

January 1, 2023

Cancer interrupts your smoothly sewn seam 

with too much thread, a knotted mess 

that snares your movement, leaves you 

wondering how your children will go on. 

They do. Their quick-moving stitches 

leave you behind in a web of thread:

new friends you don’t meet, new places

you can’t visit, performances you can’t attend

because you are stuck in cancer’s knot.

You are stalled by chemotherapy,

asleep under the surgeon’s knife,

unmoving on the radiation table.

Your children learn independence sewn 

in ever-widening circles away from you,

away from your tired questions, 

the cancer, your attempts 

to discuss what it takes from you, 

the mother it takes from them. 

How can you prepare for the day 

your stitches reach the edge, 

prepare them for all the sewing after?

Elisa A. Garza, a native Houstonian, has published two chapbooks, Entre la Claridad (Mouthfeel Press, soon to appear in a second edition) and Familia (The Portlandia Group).  She has taught students from elementary through senior citizens in public schools, universities, and community programs.  Currently, she works as a freelance editor.