Old Wool

[Delta40]

Click, click, click
I drop another stitch
It falls across my dried up tits
but I am blind to this
like closed doors.
Deaf to fear vibrating
through paper thin walls.
The tea is on the boil
and soothes me
while I rock gently in my chair
Click, click, click
my bundle of old wool
deadens crying.
Desperate neediness
is lost in row after row
of blue grey tangles
while I hum an old tune
under my breath
without ever admitting
the muffle I’m knitting
will stifle a tortured child.
The needles click, click, click
until a ball of baby wool falls
to the floor and unravels
all the way to the wall
next door
But it is not my wool
to wind back up.
I miss another stitch
Click, click, click

[Jerrybaldy]

A vision of the future??
I loved the mystery of ' But it is not my wool
to wind back up.'
It has a psycho killer feel about it but I suspect it is more knitted and pearled in the cross stitch of the family messed up pattern.


click click click
this critique is done
I loved it so put the needles down and slowly walk backwards.

[hillwalker]

Like one of the muses - Lachesis (?) - apportioning each new-born soul its own length of yarn in order to decide the duration of each individual's life on earth.

You also drop us a hint of madness - the theme of dropped stitches - and the sinister revelation that this muffler will stifle a tortured child.

So much in this when one reads between the lines. Very thought-provoking.

H

[Delta40]

Yes it does have a psycho element to it. One would not think a little grey haired old lady donning a sweet smile as she clicks away could be scary....

[Jerrybaldy]

yes, but enough of you, how about that character in your poem...

[Delta40]

lol. That's the second time you've made me laugh today....

[Jerrybaldy]

As the old saying goes it is better to laugh than to drown in the long winded pretentious bollocks of an uncle fester dissection.

[Delta40]

Ok Pugsley, I get it.

Would you or anyone who cares to comment say this poem helps form a character in the imagination of the reader for a play.

The knitting needles
the creaking rocking chair

anything else spring to mind which will help me?

[Jerrybaldy]

spittle
liver spots
an ear cocked for a kettle to boil
a smell of piss
tartan
wrinkled stockings
biscuits
oven stains
Bristol cream sherry
a leg bandage
an ulcer
nicotine eyes
a rose bush
a photograph on a mantlepiece
a ship in a bottle
a waddle
a lost look
arid sexuality
scarf
frozen peas
warmth

jerry
here to help

[Delta40]

thanks Jerry. I'm writing and submitting my written proposal to the supervisor today. Its a matter of sorting through a journal of scribbles and pastings as well as typed notes to put together something that sounds like a plot.

Those are all thought provoking ideas which help me create a rounded character.

[PrinceMyshkin]

I'm not sure how much I get of the character - I mean, to some extent, cracked is cracked - but there's an unquestionably spooky atmosphere

[Delta40]

You're right Prince. I think her stubborness to stay right where she is rocking slowly, clicking her needles while suffering goes on around her is spooky.