Tuesday, June 6, 2023

The Quality of The Thimble

The thimble is thinking of imposter's 

syndrome.    Bigger than sunflower,

but softer than guitar strings.  It gets a summer

job watering the garden of a grocery store. It

thinks it is all easy, until it forgets to wear

sunscreen & gloves and pricks its fingers 

from tiny thorns.   It keeps on bitching

that the pain everywhere is brutal to deal with. 


The thimble wilts very quickly in the summer

heat.   Like a banana which you buy greenish but

turns brownish spots in 2 days.  So you must

consume it quickly like sugar snap peas,

or radish when quickly pulled out

from the soil, crisp and slightly peppery.


The thimble loves April's Fool.  It likes to 

eat melting ice-cream when walking

to a farmer's market.   

It is also a memory box.

Keeping all the crochet bonnets and 

half-sewed materials, and all the 

unfinished verses,

no titles, just a tumble- 

weeds of words.  



Posted for dVerse Poets Pub - Quality Poems hosted by Kim M. Russell.    Inspired by the style and poem format of The Quality of Sprawl by Les Murray.

17 comments:

  1. This is absolutely exquisite writing, Grace! I especially love; "It likes to eat melting ice-cream when walking to a farmer's market.
    It is also a memory box." 💖💖

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  2. A superb response, Grace! I love the comparisons ‘bigger than sunflower,
    but softer than guitar strings’ and the lines:
    ‘It is also a memory box.
    Keeping all the crochet bonnets and
    half-sewed materials, and all the
    unfinished verses’.

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  3. Your characterization of the thimble tells me that it lives a rich, full life that is a hodgepodge of beauty in all of its dimensions. Beautiful poeming, Grace.

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    1. Yes a dream to live a fuller and bigger life when one is small, ordinary, unnoticeable like a thimble.

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  4. A charming variety of scenarios and visuals! Love it.

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  5. This is a great poem Grace, but somehow I miss the connection of the thimble in all this?

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    1. We normally view is as a lowly thimble, an ordinary piece of thing which we can easily disregard. But |I wrote it with qualities that are bigger than itself, like an imposter's syndrome. It is a hardy thing (it will not wilt) and it is so small, I doubt it is anything but a memory box. Hope this all makes sense.

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  6. Fantastic!
    At first i thought of sewing thimbles but at the farner's market i reversed to thimbleweed.
    Happy Tuesday

    Much💚love

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    Replies
    1. How clever of you to make a connection. Thank you.

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  7. Your poem is as lovely and dainty as the subject(s). I love it.

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  8. Took me half a second, too, but once I realized....WOWZA. Nice work, Grace. Thanks

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  9. How clever of you to choose the lowly thimble ... though in your hands it is anything BUT! Brava, Grace.

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  10. I’ll never look at a thimble the same old way.

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  11. so much more than a thimbleful of poetry here Grace - such imaginative lines right up that ending - a title for your next poetry book perhaps?

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