For what is coming.
An old woman on the bus is knitting something enormous.
COAT BY JACOB FRIESENHAHN 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 131 PREVIEW
An old woman on the bus
is knitting something enormous,
something with too many arms.
Her yarn is a cross between
bluish yellow and reddish green.
I watch as her needles flick
like insect legs,
weaving a tangled body,
with sleeves that end
in missing hands
that seem to reach
for my neck.
She hums to herself,
rocking with the motion
of the bus.
A man with tired eyes
and a brown briefcase
sits across from her.
He’s watching too.
“What are you making?”
he asks with a grin.
“A coat.”
“Oh? For who?”
“For what is coming.”
The bus lurches forward.
Outside, the streetlights stutter
a Morse-code warning.
The man clutches his briefcase
to himself. The old woman knits
as the lengthening sleeves twist
and twitch.
JACOB FRIESENHAHN
Poetry has become my favorite mode of expression. I write poems to explore the mystical and spiritual dimensions that I believe permeate all of experience and reality. My collection of poems The Prayer of the Mantis has been published by Kelsay Books. I teach religious studies and philosophy at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio.