For Michelle Barnes
Every quilt starts with a square
a pattern, a dream conjured
through a pile of cowries, kente, notions.
A cloth that we can all wear like home.
Her gentle hands raised
Austin to Third Ward
As inequity cuts space
we hold melanin like a safety blanket
We pray, shivering in the
Tundra of access
Gasping for warmth
But she is a Quiltmaker.
Basting us back to culture
A pinwheel of Yates education and color
Shape Center stitched
piecing talent and textile
She works outward
From the hearts
Golden thread running stitch an embrace neverending
Pulling the best of us
taught and in line.
Until we are unsure that we were
Every an individual square
Until we learn that we are a grand heat together
A powerful quiet
Made for slumber, softened around us
Between us, firm
When we mesh,
When we think there is no room left
She activist space maker soul binder
Shows us how to collect community like cotton
refined to the freshly picked and thorned
She sits with us and holds our hands, meek
tells us how special we are woven
Pillow fort shelter
Of a people.
She hands us back to ourselves as heirloom
her stamp on our hearts
A 30-year legacy of love
that never finds a wrong way to comfort