| A | There is no way to argue with you. I have seen your pride. I will stitch you into this cloth so that you point to the mirror.
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| B | I will stitch you round with greed and your two bellies.
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| C | I will call you the mouth that calls for trouble.
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| D | I will dare to divide you with the moon and still see your dark light.
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| E | You say you were blown east by the ill wind, but I will stitch in your lust.
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| F | I can find no better way to stitch you than to follow your arms that point left to all fear.
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| G | You are the gulp after the swallow of gluttony. So I will stitch you as you are.
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| H | I have seen your desire to be a fence, to be two poles that hold a clothesline, but no, I will not reward your envy. I will stitch you only as an H.
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| I | You think you are what I am, but you are wrongheaded. I will stitch you without a head.
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| J | I have seen you jump for joy, but I do not believe you are joyous. I will stitch a lid on your jump.
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| K | I want to be kind to you though you kill. I want to stitch you into this cloth so that you will keep your two hands off my neck.
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| L | You live the life of low thoughts and are lower than a snake and a brother to evil. I will stitch you with my dark thread as a snake.
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| M | Maybe you are as magnificent as a mountain, but I don’t believe it, or make me believe it.
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| N | No one understands your slide from nothing, or why you lean. I will stitch in your look of sloth.
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| O | You open your mouth to say nothing like a fool.
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| P | Please let me off your hook. Let’s just say I stitched you with a big lip and pouting.
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| Q | You break a circle the same way you break in here like a thief. I will stitch you hanged with your tongue out.
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| R | Reason is with you, but you rule it out. You are rude and stubborn. I will stitch you to stay where you planted your feet.
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| S | I see the silly river you are that has changed its mind. My stitch will sink your fish.
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| T | You stand for trouble. I cannot get by you without pricking myself with this needle. I will stitch my pain into your T.
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| U
V |
Watch out. You have left your begging hand open. The slap of anger is not money. I stitch you and the as vulnerable.
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| W | Watch out. There are deadly sins everywhere and cut- throats, liars, cheats. Don’t change. I don’t want to stitch you in wrong.
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| X | You are the crossroads here between good and evil. I will stitch you in as the X that marks the spot.
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| Y | I have seen your remorse. I will stitch you as the two hands before prayer.
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| Z | You end what was begun with a sleep or the sneeze of a doomsday. I will stitch you last with the dark star of a knot. |
This poem first appeared in New Orleans Review 17.3 (1990).
Sue Owen won The Journal Award (Ohio State University Press) for her second book, The Book of Winter (1988).
