Yarn Over – Knitting for Three by Debbie Okun Hill

POEM TITLE: Yarn Over: Knitting for Three POET NAME: Debbie Okun Hill POEM: They are close this husband and wife tightly knitted but comfortable like old pair of mittens  He holds her grey wool coarse and scratchy in a skein looped around and around the back of his two hands  She gently pulls the strand like an umbilical cord this lifeline from her lover wrapping his warmth around and around her fetus ball  There is no need to speak their breath, a faint whisper, against the crackle of flames  Their fieldstone hearth more than a foundation  Tomorrow she will  click and clack knit click, purl clack yarn over, knit for three and he will smell  the scent of lavender  watch how her rosy cheeks  might shimmer glow  Her sweater stretched as her stomach grows END OF POEM.  CREDITS AND BIO: Copyright © Debbie Okun Hill  Previously published in Ropedancer: The Ontario Poetry Society 2012 Member Anthology, Beret Days Press, 2012  Debbie Okun Hill recently rediscovered her love for knitting, although, various spools of threads and skeins of wool have quietly slipped into her literary work for decades. She has been writing for over 35 years with a focus on poetry since 2003 and on blogging since 2014. She has one poetry trade book Tarnished Trophies with Black Moss Press and her award-winning work appears in four chapbooks. Over 450 of her individual poems have been published in Canada, the United States, and Israel. She has also written over 180 features on her literary blog Kites Without Strings, in addition to review posts on Goodreads. Check out her blog at okunhill.wordpress.com for additional information.