Issue Thirty-Seven - Winter 2021

Quilting

By Dan Overgaard

These phrases, stitched together, must convey
a finished thing, with some intensity
and maybe some surprise. You take the way
a necktie—one with silky dignity,
accustomed to the better restaurants—
is loosened from its long, secure career-
defining knot, stripped of its shirt and pants,
and bagged before it’s ready to retire.
Ripped and stitched up between some odds and ends,
it dreams about its prowess in the breeze,
but makes a patchwork peace among new friends
who serve, cheek down, around some bony knees.
It’s threads like these that pull a story in,
and wrap some warmth around you for the end.

Copyright Overgaard 2021

Dan Overgaard was born and raised in Thailand. He attended Westmont College, dropped out, moved to Seattle, became a transit operator, then managed transit technology projects and programs. He’s now retired and catching up on reading. His poems have appeared in Canary Lit Mag, Shot Glass Journal, Allegro Poetry, Sweet, Triggerfish Critical Review, Poets Reading The News, The High Window and elsewhere. Read more at: danovergaard.com.

All work by