Vo-Tech
By Camille Dungy

Everything we wore that needed rescue,
pants we’d torn and shirts with ripped off buttons,
went to our Grandpa when we visited.
We modeled while he adjusted our hems.
Because he loved us, he tried to save us,
my sister and me, by restoring clothes
we’d lately damaged. You should teach the girls
how this is done, Mother once suggested,
her arms delivering mending, her eyes
collecting Grandpa’s hands, the snapped-tight box
that housed his machine, his needles. He ripped
her words as he told us never to do
to a hanging thread. Let them save their time.
He took the clothes. Let them do useful things.

From What to Eat, What to Drink, What to Leave for Poison by Camille Dungy (Red Hen Press, 2006). Used with the permission of the author.

Author of What to Eat, What to Drink, What to Leave for Poison, Camille Dungy has received fellowships and awards from organizations including the National Endowment for the Arts, The Virginia Commission for the Arts, Cave Canem, and the Bread Loaf Writer's Conference. She is assistant editor of Gathering Ground: A Reader Celebrating Cave Canem's First Decade.

Copyright © 1997-2008 by Cave Canem Foundation, Inc.

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