Image: Mum’s, Anne Campbell’s (nee Styles)  sewing kit circa 1959

 

The heart is a muscle

 

Caller:  Hello, is that Lee?

Me: Yes, speaking

Caller: Hello, I’m Paul calling from The Missing Bodies List

I am pleased to say that we think we may have found your heart

It was found outside shivering in the cold on the side of the road

by a late-night drinker. Broken but repairable. Would you like to speak to him to see whether he indeed is your heart?

Me: Yes, please. Hello heart, how are you doing?

Heart: Hello Lee,

Me: Heart, you are not sounding too good

Heart: Please find Lee your Mum’s childhood sewing kit,

Anne Styles’ thread and pins

I am fleshy muscle torn by grief

Please sew me back together again

 

And now with Mum’s thread and pins,

with rhymes and stitches, and with plays on words,

once every missing part of my body is found,

SEW ME.

Sew the elusive poetress all back together again.