Lives in Venice, Italy. Her poetry has recently appeared in Melic Review, The Pedestal Magazine, Tryst and Tattoo Highway. She has received a nomination from Verse Libre Quarterly for the 2003 Pushcart Prize. An e-chapbook of her poetry, "Dirt Therapy" is being hosted by <<Slow Trains>>.

For the sake of peace
I quilted blankets
and not one hid,
let alone darts
with macabre poison,
a deliberately misplaced needle.
In the intricacy
of sewing pieces together
which might have
well been a useless act,
fingers watered -
as if there were
too much blood already
staining the cloth.

Slaving for peace,
I collected patches
of his discarded clothes -
4 blued with his eyes,
the other 10 were
my unworn gifts,
all have been gassed
with naphthalene
into the back of his closet.
Unlike these hands,
my patchwork has found
a way back to our bed.

In the wake of peace
I quilted
a polychrome of swatches:
cinnabar stripes
indigo plaid
black-hole spots
calico sand
until he tired
of too much warmth,
threw off the blankets
and left.

** first published in The Yalobusha Review (Volume VI, 2000).

Copyright © 2004 Arlene Ang