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The Cotton Anniversary by Mark Moody January 10, 2007 Numerology reveals that 2 indicates partnering, adaptability, consideration of others. And 22 -- the Master Builder, a powerful force, a large endeavor. In second grade it proved to be the most difficult of numerals: hours spent getting the curlicue just right, so that the long curve of its neck would flow from the pencil without effort, down the elegant body to nestle on the pale blue line. This year it's grown difficult again, wanting at times to unbend, break back to its singular parts in our trials by escrow and exile. But our lives have taught us nothing if not tenacity, and the fullness of two come together. Six 2s in the new address, four of them cursive white swans in stained glass over the green front door. 21213 reads the zip code we're headed for, and that 3 seems both postscript and portent, a synthesis of all that has tested us. Tradition calls for cotton gifts at this juncture, tokens from a fabric of entanglement, filaments twisted together: strong and durable, tender and familiar. For Dennis About the author: This poem is about the house my partner and I were purchasing in Baltimore around the time of our second anniversary, after moving away from San Francisco, a city we could no longer afford to live in. He passed on this last summer. We were together 7 wonderful years, and I remain in the home he made so beautiful for us. I spend my time keeping up the house, catering to the cats and committing social work to pay the bills and support my poetry habit. | | | |
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