Wheel of Passion and Grief
A tribute to the artists of Amish quilting
By Mariann Lynch
She finds herself
in the circle
of kinswomen “kinzwimmin”
Here are our scraps.
“Thank Christ!! red’s allowed!!
Susanna’s mother, Rachel, opens the floor for discussion of pattern choice.
Mary “The Rebel” Miller asserts,
“I see the wheel’s curved spokes on a wide black sky.”
Beadohilde blurts,
“The circle that grinds!”
Kinzwimmin murmur the riot:
The red is riverside rape.
The red is riverside romance.
Spring green will be death with medicine breath
and Cryzia’s bruises, purple.
Blue scraps of bright for joy tears in the sun,
Purple for grandeur and fame.
Green, still alive -- see
blood
spurt from the warrior’s side,
blood
spurt from our overused wombs.
Circumscription
stitches our days.
But
needles
ignite our murmuring minds.
Mariann Lynch is rooted in Pittsburgh, but has spent adult life in Virginia’s Piedmont, D.C.’s distant suburbs. Her academic background is in cultural anthropology and geography, and she just finished year two in the MFA program at George Mason University. She has served there as a reader for Poetry Daily. She participated in the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference in 2021. Her poetry began as a private expression of feeling and exploration of ideas. She has enjoyed refining that expression and deepening that exploration as a writing student. Sharing her art in the poet community at Mason has opened her eyes to the possibility of an artistic life. She lives in a little suburban house with two cats and fond memories of her two dead husbands.
Artwork Source: Diamond and Square quilt, c. 1910-20, unknown artist. In the public domain.
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