Margot Myers

The Voyage

I found a pattern from Paris, matelot
stripes but chic. I sent for wool from Peru,
blue and grey, needles from Denmark ethically
sourced, sat by the window day after day
in grim profile like Whistler’s Mother,
struggling with the purl, the plain, moss-stitch, rib
          — in, round, through, and off —
It bagged, it sagged, but I wouldn’t say
it was a failure. Unravelling was a revelation —
how eagerly the stitches crinkled from the pins
and wound themselves through tumbling skeins
as if they were alpacas still, and springing home to valley, hill
          — in, round, through, and off —
          Adieu, my Breton castaway.

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Margot Myers is a retired bookseller from Oxford, UK, with a PhD in fairy tales. She has been published widely in print and online, and shortlisted or placed in several competitions. I Meant to Say (2020) is her debut pamphlet, which draws on the quirks of childhood, family and identity.