LOIS GREENE STONE - POEMS

​Lois Greene Stone, writer and poet, has been syndicated worldwide. Poetry and personal essays have been included in hard & softcover book anthologies.  Collections of her personal items/ photos/ memorabilia are in major museums including twelve different divisions of The Smithsonian.  The Smithsonian selected her photo to represent all teens from a specific decade.

​no thimble

Needle’s eye seemed smaller
as thread avoided the slot.
Fingers, once so able, now
showed aging.  Struggling,
and stubborn, I kept sliding
the strand of white until
success.  A cotton tee-shirt, 
still warm from the dryer,
spread unfolded on my
kitchen table.  Snip.  Snip.
Just as the video online
suggested.  I rolled jagged
edges, and began to gently
push needle to form a seam.
I missed my machine, having
given it away years ago when
sewing my clothing changed
from pleasure to difficulty.
Done.  Required mask to
wear outside during pandemic.

Mixing emotion ​

​What colors paint
pandemic?
The wood pallette,
streaked with some
dried oils that
stubbornly defied
turpentine, did not
want darkness and
fear hues.  Sable
brushes with a
faint odor of linseed
oil stood ready.
Protective mask,
fitted vinyl gloves
seemed out of place
near an easel used
to hold stretched
canvas.  Fear, in
twenty-twenty,
would not be
recorded by my
tools.  I opened
the tube of cadmium
yellow squeezing
sunlight instead
of anxiety.