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      September 28, 2023To the Child Watching His Grandmother SewBradford Kimball

      Image: “Seamstress” by Lily Prigioniero. “To the Child Watching His Grandmother Sew” was written by Bradford Kimball for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, August 2023, and selected as the Editor’s Choice.
      The whir of the sewing machine fades
      Like a faltering metronome.
       
      If you can imagine each stitch
      As a note,
      You can hear a lone melody.
       
      But you don’t know that yet.
      You are too young, and it is too dark.
       
      She’ll wait until the lights burn out,
      And when she thinks you are asleep,
      She’ll play that tune again.
       
      One day, you’ll hear
      Some love song on the radio
      And understand.
      The music crescendos—
       
      The lights burn out, one by one,
      And you remember
      The needle’s steady hum:
      The first love song you ever heard.

      from Ekphrastic Challenge

      Comment from the series editor, Megan O'Reilly

      “There is a profound sense of warmth, both emotionally and visually, in this beautiful image, which is reflected in ‘To the Child Watching his Grandmother Sew.’ The simple yet extraordinary idea of a grandmother’s sewing as a child’s first music is elegantly executed, never overdone or heavy-handed. I also love the way the poet uses light: The grandmother waits until ‘the lights burn out’ to run the sewing machine so she doesn’t wake the child, which for me conjures a picture of the child listening to this ‘music’ while in a dreamlike state in another room—a deeply resonant image. There is a great deal of love in this poem—it makes me miss the ‘steady hum’ of my own grandmother.”

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