Crazy Quilt, by Lisa Hase-Jackson

A quilt made by the poet.

Crazy Quilt
 
Denim scraps weigh
             like certainty as they are sewn
to bits of corduroy and flannel
             scavenged from old shirts and jeans
collected over the years. 
 
My fingers are bare, the thread - cotton
            from a new spool.

He is home early, stands
            at the threshold of our bedroom,
hands drywall-chapped
 
and knuckle-raw, arms sinewed, 
            tough as ropes. I hear a log shift
in the cast iron stove downstairs       
 
as he steps over the unfinished quilt spread across
            the unfinished floor of
our unfinished house. He sits on the corner

of the bed and lights another Pall Mall pulled from  
            the crumpled pack nestled in the pocket
of his Carhartt jacket. Tobacco smoke mingles
            with the scent of gypsum dust
and the fragrance of
             Osage Orange,
Bulleit bourbon
             preceding his breath
like a prediction.
​
Lisa Hase-Jackson

Lisa Hase-Jackson's award winning poetry has appeared in such journals, as The Midwest Quarterly, Kansas City Voices, Fall Lines, I-70 Review, and The South Carolina Review. Born in Portland, Oregon and raised primarily in the Midwest, Lisa is a traveler at heart and has spent her adult years living and writing in such locations as Anyang, South Korea, Albuquerque, New Mexico and Spoleto, Italy. Lisa is editor of Zingara Poetry Review.