Cloth

By Kathleen Kroll

A simple piece of cloth
Square, rectangular, oblong
Soft blue, pink, green
Woven, nubby or smooth
It matters not
Cloth
Swaddling my infant babe

Cloth
In tatters
Bearing injuries honorably
Chewed, dragged, hugged
Kitty, bear or tiger
Cloth comes alive 
In my toddler’s arms

Cloth 
Stretched over table or chair
Tent, house or fire station
My busy lad
Creates an island of safety
So proud am I and is he

Cloth
At preschool 
Comforting
Cuddled briefly 
Stuffed quickly
Into a backpack
Forgotten in busy play

Cloth
Lying inert
Discarded
In an attic chest
Squatting 
On the ground
My teen barely notices
Its displacement
His mind alive 
New ideas
New destinations
New loves

Cloth over his marriage bed
Immaculately placed
Or rumpled, tossed, lost
Covering two
Sometimes three
Or more
Bills litter the surface by day
Crumbs hide within by night
A polka-dotted pattern
Tears of joy and sorrow

Aged now
Letting go
Of all
But this one piece of cloth
Grateful for its presence
Wrapping, wrapping
Boundaries fading
Cloth as a shroud
Returning his body
To its source




A blanket is never just a blanket....

(Link: https://www.poetrysoup.com/poem/cloth_765726)


When I read this poem for the first time, I was immediately drawn to the metaphor that the cloth represents.
It represents an attachment to something/someone and eventually having to let them go. I can truly relate
to this because in 2017, I had lost my Grandpa and throughout my 17 years of life, he was my best friend; 
someone that I can talk to with no issues, someone who would sneak me cookies if I was in time out and 
all in all I really miss him. When I said my final "I love you" to him in the hospital, he smiled at me
and he knew that he had fulfilled his life out to the fullest, that he was content in his final moments.
In the last stanza, it talks about fulfillment and being happy with life, regardless of where it was placed
at and how it was manipulated into clothing. My grandpa struggled, and there was no doubt he was displaced 
when he emigrated from the Soviet Union right after World War II, but I know he was happy with how he ended
up here and how he made the dream family he always wanted, how he made us happy, and how he saw us succeed
and thrive in life.