Missing Elegy For Mary, by Grace Celi

Sampler, by Mary Nissly (Lancaster County, Pennsylvania) 1840

Missing Elegy For Mary
​
Remember me--
embroidered above a heart
sewn crooked on creased linen. 

With crude silk you stitched a table set
untouched—glasses full 
and chairs pulled out but empty 

as the house you once lived in.
I wonder if your mother 
shook her head at your off-centre 

heart. I wonder if your fingers wavered 
when the needle needed re-threading. 
Mary, why can’t you sew straight— 

she’d scold, clenching all the linen 
you wasted. You’d steady your hands,
shut your mouth tight, and try once more. 

Remember me. 
I wonder if you cried out to Christ 
because you knew you’d be forgotten

like that undrunk wine or the house 
you once lived in—a girl with futile
hands, trembling fingers useless 

to wrinkled linen and a needle
crooked as those lines of verse 
where you dreamt of a grave’s salvation. 

Grace Celi

Grace Celi (she/her) is currently pursuing a B.A. in Creative Writing at Franklin & Marshall College. She is originally from Brooklyn, New York. Her recent work is forthcoming in Beyond Queer Words and Prairie Margins. ​