Undone
Carole Poustie (Deakin University, Australia)
Was I nothing
but the plain and purl
she knitted together
row upon row
with the bone of her fingers,
raw from the effort
of stitching herself
into every fibre of my being?
Was I only a fabrication,
a simulacrum?
Oh, but before she could cast me off
I learned how to cast her aside –
wrest the wool of my existence
from her mothering clutch
to become myself.
But you, dear daughter,
with your scissor-sharp words
and razor-wire defences
catch me
slipshod and threadbare;
cut a hole in me,
pull me apart
until I am completely unravelled –
before you knit me up again
to your own design.
Carole Poustie is completing her Masters in Writing and Literature at Deakin University. She is a winner of the Page Seventeen Poetry Competition and her work has appeared in numerous journals, including Poetrix, Divan, and Verandah. She reviews for Magpies and is the convener of the spoken word event ‘Stopping all Stations’ in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. Carole has published a children’s novel, Dog Gone, and has just finished the sequel. You can learn more at her website.