The Pattern Flashcards
Stanza 1(the pattern)
the sting of her hand across my face in one of our wars.
Stanza 2/3(the pattern)
We might have made a new start as women without tags like mother, wife, sister, daughter,
Stanza 3(the pattern)
I’d never gone back to visit her grave.
Stanza 4(the pattern)
When her knees grew sore she’d break for a cup of tea.
Stanza 5(the pattern)
Did her mirror tell what mine tells me?
Stanza 6(the pattern)
knowing history has brought her to her knees.
We’d grow solemn as planets in an intricate orbit about her.
Stanza 8(the pattern)
It’ll be over my dead body anyone harms a hair of your head.
Stanza 10(the pattern)
I wore that dress with little grace. To me it spelt poverty, the stigma of the second hand.
Stanza 13(the pattern)
wrapped entirely in her own shadow, the world beyond her already a dream, already lost. She’s eight months pregnant. Her last child.
Stanza 15(the pattern)
I dreamt a robe of a colour so pure it became a word.
Stanza 17(the pattern)
Tongues of flames in her dark eyes, she’d say, “One of these days I must teach you to follow a pattern.”