"Everyday Embroidery" by Nobel Chan

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Today the way the breaking sun
Slants through the window glass
And shines to make the colors sing
And stirs the dust to make them dance,
When dawn comes to my morning eye
And draws me out of dusty dreams,
I think I see the world unstitched
Laid before me with broken seams.

I take my needle and my thread
Preparing for my daily task,
To make the world as I see fit,
To weave and sew, to make it last.
First I greet my friend good morning
Rising sleepy from the bed,
Sunlight threads around her body
And makes a silk-like silhouette.

Then I make the journey out
To find new fabrics I can sew,
Feel the cashmere breezes kissing
Pavements wrapped in styrofoam snow.
Ahead is someone I've met once
I recognize them by the eyes,
Waving once, and in that wave
We string a thread between our lives.

The sky puts on the cloak of night
The stars tell me it's time to go.
I bundle all the things I've got
And walk in footprints the whole way home.
I take my needle and my thread
Preparing for my nightly task:
To make the world, the one I saw
To save it in my heart to last.

Tomorrow it will be undone
Tomorrow it will never end.
Tomorrow I will greet the sun
And make the world anew again.

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Nobel Chan is a Boston University sophomore majoring in English. She comes from Hong Kong and loves to read, write, and sing. In her spare time she likes to play the ukulele and the piano, and she is currently making her way through Agatha Christie's entire catalog. She also loves hot chocolate.