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Quiltmaker

 

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






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