Reel

Image: Old Lady threading by Ronaldo de Campos Fernandes

Longing

A gloomy old lady

With a hump.

Wrinkles.

Threading on the old spinning wheel

Bony fingers still dexterous

but slow
no hurries

signs of past times

From the window at the high tower she watches the clock

in constant oscillation

startling
Bang
at each twang

The heart no longer accompanies the clock

It goes at it’s own pace

Misplaced

The wheel, the clock , memories

rotate with the earth

in a centrifugal universe

Those whom watch from the light won’t see her

She is mixed in the grim darkness

in yellowish earth tones

in the shadows of yesterday

The veil of cataract does not hide completely the light

As she gazes from the window the colors of extinct days

She is longing

since the womb longing before,

a constant gaze at yesterday

memories marked in a pendulum

of a constant time

The old lady glimpses memories,

where time is always present

she gazes from the darkness

A long absent yesterday

The mother scolds her scraped knee

The red ribbon

Felix,  the kitten buried in the backyard

Blushing yet the memory of a kiss

Ecstasy still the inebriating images of love

The thread falls from her hands

entangled to the possibilities

of what might have been

of that yarn reel

The old lady pulls chunks of cotton

insidiously turning the old spinning wheel

rotating forward

continuously

she weaves a reel

to be knitted into the little girl’s dress

a girl who still turns into the womb

dormant

The piercing squeak of the spinning wheel

follows the black hole

within her chest

swallowing to permanent darkness

the nebular spark

of a longing dwarf star