'Unravelling': A Poem by Betsy Mars

UNRAVELLING
He sat on my lap innocent
under the needle
or hook as I knitted
or crocheted.
He lay by my breast
nursing or needing
the touch of my hand
as it flew at its work
always productive
the garment took shape
& I marveled at its beauty
when I noticed the sheen
was the color of his fine
flaxen hair; he had
fallen asleep
and I loosened the rows
undoing my work
which never again had such weight
while his hair never forgot
its former shape.
Betsy Mars is a prize-winning poet, photographer, educator, and recently took up publishing as well, releasing her first anthology, Unsheathed: 24 Contemporary Poets Take Up the Knife (Kingly Street Press), in October 2019. She was educated at the University of Southern California, and occasionally puts what she learned to use. Her work has been published in The California Quarterly, The Ekphrastic Review, RATTLE (photography), and numerous other online journals and print anthologies. In January 2019 her first chapbook, Alinea, was published by Picture Show Press.