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Cross-Stitch & Cross-Purposes~ By Daniel Klawitter

5/14/2019

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Your wife is a knitter— 
And silently she counts her stitches.
But you, dear sir, had the misfortune
Of walking in on her 
To ask an innocent question.
Standing chastised at the door, 
You are quickly baptized 
In a hiss of her hushes
And a string of chanted numbers:
“Twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four!”
She intones them at you in a voice 
Thick with exasperation. 
Her eyes are fixed on your form, 
But you might as well be 
An insignificant and lowly worm
Or beetle—as she glares at you, 
Her stare piercing as a pointed needle. 
Your wife, dear sir, is sitting on the couch, 
Covered in knitting material and cats. 
It’s like you’ve stumbled flat
Upon something hermetically spiritual
And profaned it by your very existence. 
Best to just slink back upstairs 
Without any resistance 
To your bread and circuses.
For your question will go unanswered 
In the cross-stitched air—caught
In the snare of cross-purposes. 



Author Bio:
Daniel has been an actor, a union organizer for mental health care workers, the lead singer/lyricist of the indie rock band Mining for Rain, an ordained minister and preacher, and a poetry book reviewer for NewPages.com. He is the author of four previous poetry collections and is the recipient of numerous awards, including: A Purple Dragonfly Book Award for excellence in Children’s Literature (for Put On Your Silly Pants, Daffydowndilly Press, 2016), and a Royal Dragonfly Book Award for Poetry (for Quiet Insurrections, White Violet Press, 2018). In addition, out of approximately 150 entries, his poem “Lunch at Corafaye’s” was one of only 11 poems chosen to be paired with a photographic interpretation by artist Sarah Jane Sanders and displayed on exhibit at the Norton Center for the Arts in Kentucky. You can read more about Daniel at: poetdanielklawitter.wordpress.com
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