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The Seam Ripper Holds with Those Who Favor Fire by Cady Favazzo

April 15, 2021
Reading Time: 1 Minutes

the seam ripper was never her mother’s favorite / and therefore endears herself to everyone she meets // she recognizes your mistakes before you do / but keeps them to herself out of politeness / and self-preservation // the seam ripper is routinely disappointed / to be identified as part of a kit.

 

the seam ripper positions herself / at the spot where the nylon overlaps / puckers and gaps and the seam gasps / softly and the seam ripper slides into the taut thread / that was poked and pulled through layers of fabric before / the seam ripper was a twinkle / in her daddy’s eye // the thread goes thut thut thut or thit thit thit // the thread booms through / the seam ripper’s graceful little body and / the seam ripper delights / slice slice // the thread releases.

 

the seam ripper believes she is worth more than $1.97 / that she is an agent, no, an angel / of destruction / that destruction is sundry / and necessary // the seam ripper holds / a high opinion of herself / she gathers fibers in the slim hook of her mouth and / the seam ripper wants you to know / that it is easy for her to sever them.

 

the seam ripper sees seams where humans say seamless // the seam ripper could not identify / which pictures show buses or traffic lights but / the seam ripper knows seams along the tendons and bones / of a palm / and in the space between silence and speaking // the flat blue line of the sky against the horizon / seems a seam to the seam ripper / who would leave the edges / gaping loose and flared //  would unseam / all of it.

Contest WinnersLyric Poetry
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Poetry

Favazzo, Cady
Cady Favazzo is a poet and teacher from Wyoming. You can find some of her work in Phoebe, The Columbia Review, The Shore, and elsewhere. She is the winner of the 2021 Five South Poetry Prize.

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