Listen to the world’s best poetry read out loud.
Ann Lowe 1953
Ann Lowe 1953 - Shash Trevett
Ann Lowe 1953
‘A coloured woman made it.’
No name, no significance.
Cotton, bobbin
spin the wheel.
The cotton flower blooms
in the postbellum South.
Pick, pick, unstitch
Fifty yards of ivory silk
tucked and banded
like her great-grandmother
flicking the bolls.
Quick eyes, precise fingers.
The cotton flower blooms
in an endless summer.
Bridal white for a Senator’s wife.
Back stitch, chain stitch
blind whip stitch
cotton reel, satin finish.
‘Who made your dress Miss Bouvier?’
‘A coloured woman made it.’
No name, no voice.
The cotton flower blooms
a lineage of seamstresses.
Pin, tuck
a portrait neckline
full, full skirt
embroidered flowers
cotton flowers
circles tracing patterns
concentric, widening
like her great-grandmother’s
arms stroking the cotton crop.
The cotton flower blooms
in manacled abundance.
Watered silk, french knot
couching blanket stitch
bridal white for a President’s wife.
‘Who made your dress Miss Bouvier?’
‘A coloured woman made it.’