My Favorite Scarf
Sisterly love knitted it from magenta wool,
strung just the needed amount of orange
through cables and flat-hemmed points.
It’s much like the pink vest always paired
with a skirt in kindergarten, with swirled
horn buttons and same-yarn whipstitching.
There were blue and green gloves too,
checkerboard patterned–belonging to
one of my sisters–and the old wooden
footstool George made our mother one of
the times he went to classes long enough
to finish something. There were dresses,
hooded robes, three sets of red Tartan boy
pajamas, later tiny crocheted caps and mittens
for grandnieces. Eventually, this bracelet,
cobalt-glass-beaded, strung on steel, like
those we saw at the crafts fair one Christmas
that earned a gasp. We were all creative
when it came to gifting, old-fashioned even
then. Her misplaced scarf holds memories,
so no wonder Elizabeth welcomed its return.
