The Knitter

Red Wool, Before Dawn

The skein unwinds across the table,
catches on the salt cellar.
Two needles.
The chipped mug.
Coffee gone cold.
5:17 blinking on the stove.
Outside, an engine idles.
Unmarked van at the curb,
exhaust feathering air.

Across the street
a blind slat lifts.
Falls.
Boots on trodden snow.
A hammering.

Loop.
Loop.
Purl one, knit two
The yarn burns a groove in the finger.
On the counter,
three hats,
ready, folded.

Slide on blackened ice,
A door slams. 

Featured image: Edward Hopper, Cape Cod Morning; Gustave Caillebotte, View of Rooftops (Effect of Snow) 1878–79; Horst Strempel ,Pogrom (Skizze), 1946

Left side: Albert Ranney Chewett, Artist’s Mother Knitting in a Flat in Paris;  Anna Ancher, Sørine Møller knitting, Skagen;  Edward Hopper,Girl at a Sewing Machine. ca. 1921

Right side: Patricia Preece,Old Woman Knitting; Alison Prosser, Just Keep on Knitting; Grace Cossington Smith,The Sock Knitter 1915.