The Last Leather Thimble in Peterborough by Rodger Martin

The Last Leather Thimble in Peterborough

lay within clear plastic, abandoned like a doll
in a basket on a shelf at the rear of Joseph’s Coat,
lost among civility’s veneers shoppers convince
themselves their credit can purchase. Its label
proclaimed, “Nimble! New! Improved Durability!”
Crafted in El Paso by those whose fingers know
more of promise than the patrons they support,
who know by heart embroidery’s iambic recitation,
the in-and-out of needle and thread,
the quiet lacing repairing a pocket,
the back-and-forth through the eye of a button,
that ancient stitching of fiber, a certainty of connection,
lying soft upon another’s skin, unspoken, unperceived,
like breath upon a dream,


Rodger Martin lives in Hancock, NH and is the author of The Blue Moon Series (Hobblebush Books, 2007).

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Poem is used here with the permission of the poet, all rights reserved.
Photo is "Mary Cassatt: Young Mother Sewing (29.100.48)". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. (October 2006)