Rag Bag

A thread snaps
slowly unraveling
until it is pulled
or snipped or
breaks off
and falls to the floor
unnoticed and unimportant
just another bit of lint
on an accumulating pile

Then another
and another
stretching, straining
the garment wears thin
over an outsized appetite
for wealth and power
for ignorance and denial

A little rip along a seam
and they cry
“Sew it up”
“Sew it up”
“It doesn’t look good”

The stitches
done neatly then
and safely hidden
hold for a while
the garment looks nearly new
but the consumption continues
the fabric wears
the pressure builds

A thread snaps
a stitch pulls
then another
rending the fabric
ruining the garment

Set aside hopefully
for a someday patchwork quilt
more likely it will be used to
staunch the bleeding
that surely will come

Then finally tossed aside
just a remnant
for archeologists to find
and historians to ponder…

How did it happen?
How could they not have known?

Marv Himmel
July 7, 2016 ©

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