Jeanne d'Orge. The Sewing Bee. Alfred Kreymborg, ed. 1920. Others for 1919

Alfred Kreymborg, ed. Others for 1919. 1920.

The Sewing Bee

By Jeanne d’Orge


ON a wintry afternoon
They bring their work
And settle round the hearth
A faint half circle of ladylike emotions
Withered now and near the end	5
They sit embroidering
with fine silk of remembrance
Samples of my past history.
Their crackling gossip pricks
like splintered glass.	10
When I go in they flutter to me
yearning and coquettish
I am amused to speak in a bold voice
Indelicate truths, rich in blood red oaths
And when they are shocked away	15
To sprawl alone
full lengthened and masculine
filling my pipe with dark strong thoughts
On the emancipation of woman
flesh or sprite.	20