If you don't measure and cut precisely, if the template slips
even a fraction, the variance will multiply though at first

you won't notice. You'll keep cutting and start stitching
the pieces together perhaps Lover's Knot or Barn Raising.

At some point you'll realize the pattern isn't turning out
as planned. You won't want to see this, so you'll look

the other way. You'll lie to yourself and keep trying to stitch
the story you've dreamed of—smooth, matching seams,

happily married flawless seams. Even trimmed to size,
squared up, the blocks will refuse to align. You'll wish

you could rip them out, start over but this quilt is what it is—
the razed barn, your truth, your tell, the knot's not.



The title of this poem is a line from the poem
"How to Sew a Spacesuit, 1968" by Cori A. Winrock.