button collection: detail (Photo credit: chronographia)
Today’s poem challenge from dversepoets is to write about buttons. So, here’s my little offering.
Closet Buttons
High on my closet shelf,
a box of buttons. With care,
I matched them, colour-coded,
size-sorted, in little plastic pouches,
and an odd collection of singles
from years of new jackets, pants
and blouses, each came with one
replacement button and that mysterious
inch or two of thread.
Yet as I write the poem the mystery
resolves, the thread’s not for matching
colour, it’s for attaching button to cloth.
But it’s always thick and sturdy,
that thread. To coax it through
a needle’s eye, would tax my own,
my fingers, grown too clumsy, and me
without the required pound of patience.
Carol A. Stephen
July 1, 2012
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- Poetics – Button, Button (dversepoets.com)
Quillfyre 
nice…one less mystery in the world…smiles…it makes function to hold the more important button in place…patience is a taxing thing for me at times as well….
Thanks, Brian, for visiting and commenting!
Carol
I love this. So nice to see the humble button elevated into a poem! Glad I am not the only one who finds sewing them on an ordeal.
Yes. I think, after ironing, I dislike sewing most. Of course, not seeing as well as I used to doesn’t help! C
i used to do a lot of sewing on the sewing machine…but when it comes to handsewing buttons on, i always ask my husband…he’s much more patient than i am…and nice that your buttons ended up in a poem..a nice place for them…smiles
Yes, Claudia, a poem is a nicer place than a closet shelf for a poem, don’t you think? :)
Carol
I remember sticking each hand into a couple gallon jars of buttons.
For some reason a few years ago I bought, yes, bought, a bag of buttons at Michael’s. I have no idea what I was thinking, other than the fact they were on sale for 90% off. I may have used 5. But they are sure purty! lol C
smiling at the last stanza, it gets harder & harder to get that thread through the needle’s eye – my patience too wears thin – great poem
Thanks, Ruth! Appreciate the feedback. And the smile too! Carol
Ashamed to say, I cannot even sew on a button… And I have many of those spares… I really do need to put them in a jar or something!
I used to be able to sew buttons and at least hem pants. But these days it is something I avoid if I can. :) Carol
sewing button is a very relaxing thing to do.i also like ripping them off a shirt that i have designated as a rag
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