Chalk Lines

To ease my mind with craft
I marked scratchy-soft linen
with blue chalk
to center a monogram
that’s stitching now
on the embroidery machine
(you can hear it
howling
like a leaf blower)
and I drew
white X’s to reinforce
the leather straps I’ll sew
with a roller foot and
a size 90 needle on
my old Elna
then, I examined
my carefully constructed
ribbon edge binding—
which lies straight now
(I ripped it out twice)
thanks to the lines I sketched with a clear ruler and
a pink chalk triangle, held between my thumb and pointer
My cares fell away, like
petals from a flower
only pastel dust remains

Madeleine French lives in Florida and Virginia with her husband. You may find her in front of a sewing machine, behind a copy of Persuasion, or occasionally on Twitter, @maddiethinks. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Roi Fainéant Press, Dust Poetry Magazine, West Trade Review, Schuylkill Valley Journal, The Madrigal, Remington Review, Door Is A Jar, The Westchester Review, and elsewhere.