New Poetry from Barbara Tramonte: “Tailored To Fit In”

I WAS GATHERED / image by Amalie Flynn

Somebody sewed me with a string
On the bias
I was gathered
And about to pop

This has been a pattern all my life

They hemmed me in with notions
Each stitch bringing me
To a false whole

(I longed to slit my wrist)

I jolted with a shock of recognition
To see that I had drifted to the wrong side