Alan Perry

Tapestry

Gesturing on a cloth map,
she points me where to scribble next,

her plan for an inky quilt
that builds, square by square,

reveals a patchwork she calls
warp and weft. I call it a poem, she

declares it a wall hanging. I insist
it displays as lines, form,

but she loves it as fabric.
My words jut at right angles,

new images in her loom.
And when I finish writing, she wants

the piece suspended like an intricate rug
that mixes each scrap of language.

But our own picture – tan bodies
on a white beach – decorates the breezeway,

faded from too much sun, gave up
its two ghosts to a colorless background.

Waving me into the art studio,
air sweeps the space she walked –

her feet on bare floor,
walls that spoke in patterns.

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Alan Perry is a poet and editor whose debut chapbook, Clerk of the Dead, was a finalist in the Cathy Smith Bowers Poetry Competition, and was published by Main Street Rag Press (2020). His poems have appeared in Tahoma Literary Review, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Third Wednesday, San Pedro River Review, ONE ART, Gyroscope Review, and elsewhere. He is a founder and Co-Managing Editor of RockPaperPoem, a Senior Poetry Editor for Typehouse Magazine, and a Best of the Net nominee. His second chapbook, The Heart of It, will be published in 2025 by Kelsay Books. More at: https://AlanPerryPoetry.com.

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