My Grandmother's Sewing Machine

My grandmother always made new Christmas outfits for her children with the stiff waxed cloth my grandfather bought from Kenya
Ten different shirts and dresses
She never used patterns
Women waited for days sitting along the benches outside my grandmother's house 
for patterned skirts and bustled sleeves

Her children fell asleep
Christmas Eve nights to the murmur of my grandmother's foot pedal

She sewed good wishes into the seams with grace in every thread
My grandmother and her sewing machine every year
loving and clothing a village

                                              Written by: Sharon Rose Piwang