If a life were a quilt

would I have 67 squares?

or 720 for each hour in each month?

Let’s see

that would be 67 years

times 12 months

times 720.

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Life is much longer than I’d previously thought.

.

No, one square on one quilt.

One big empty square for my niece to scribble on.

(Which would be life square number 345,600 when she was three.)

.

I’d have to have the 501,120th square with wedding flowers.

And another square for the day my dad died,

And one for the hour of Gregory’s AIDs diagnosis.

.

For the days I spent watching stupid TV,

too many squares to count.

For the hours of gardening and of making love,

Too happy to quilt.

.

Friends made a wedding quilt for my husband and I

(Square 233, 280 on my life quilt.)

It had a knee cut out from Allyn’s jeans,

An embroidery of “The Ghoul” who we’d watch stoned,

A swatch of a bridesmaid’s dress,

A peace symbol.

Gregory ruined his square by leaving an iron on it.

I forget the others right now.

They will come to me in a dream.

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Blue background with little white flowers.

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Yes, my life covers 3,473, 280 square inches of land.

More than enough to garden in, more than enough to wander in,

More than enough to be buried in.