This, of course, is as true a story as I could make it. If I was still teaching creative writing, I would encourage students to find an object in a thrift store and to imagine its former lives, much like the lovely film, The Red Violin. It's been used as a device, consciously or otherwise, for other novels and films but that's because it is an effective way to create sufficient emotional distance to spur the imagination.
This poem was first published in the Spring 2012 edition of The Elephant Mountain Review: Kootenay Voices.
The "imp" pot, which I planted with mizuna greens, was created by New Denver potter and sculptor (and painter, cookbook author, singer and amazing all-round bundle of energy and creativity), Donna Jean (DJ) Wright!
Sewing
Machine
I
consider his ad for the Singer
Age?
About five, he’d said
Pushing
twenty, I know
Cabinet
style, heavy old thing, solid
So
I fork out seventy-five bucks.
The
sad thin man allowed
She
was a stripper
Made
her own costumes
Stayed
in his trailer
When
she worked this town.
I
didn’t ask if she’d left the life
Or
just left him, in any case
She
left this sewing machine behind.
For
twenty years it begrudged me
Mending
jeans, making curtains
Pedestrian
tasks with denim, cotton, fleece.
but
sometimes I heard a breathy voice
“Sequins,
more sequins!”
I
always had trouble threading the beast
Issues
with tension, knots, clumps
Thread
looping back on itself
Snapping,
the whole thing grinding to a halt, stuck.
Such
is life with yet another move to make
&
did I mention it was heavy as sin?
I
sold it for twenty-five dollars
To
a sweet-faced Gitxsan lady
Who
always used a Singer
As
did her mother before her.
She
gave it a pat, sat down for a test drive
&
it purred, the happy black & silver beast.
The last time
I saw that sewing machine
It was en
route to the Gitxsan elder’s apartment
perched in the
backseat of a red convertible
driven by her
good neighbour, a well-muscled barmaid.
Now I use a
portable lightweight
Swiss unit, sleek
& white, methodical
Hums for me
like a faraway marching band
No personality
to speak of, yet.
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