Poem Made of Abandoned Lines

This morning, I decided to play with lines from rough drafts that I abandoned, never turning them into finished drafts.  I opened documents going back to May, and assembled these lines (feel free to play too):

I leave the key
To unlock the code in my sewing

Basket.

A monastery in the desert, too far
For the maniacal


We all comment on the coldness
Of this winter.

I am tired of tethers,


We saw the signs early


a summer
Of sorbet and lemonade.


Walking by flashlight, startled
By my bear shaped shadow.


the wolf
At the door in the form of a hurricane


In a time of trouble, she knits
Socks of all sizes.

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After an hour or two of tinkering and internet meandering, here's what I came up with.  I have no idea how I feel about the poem itself, but the process of creating it was immensely satisfying.   It is not autobiographical--I've had no biopsy, I can't scramble up rock faces, I prefer crocheting to knitting while my grandmother preferred embroidery, I don't think I should have been making plans to move.  The bit about being startled by my shadow, thinking it might be a bear as I walked in the dark with a flashlight--that part is true.

After a summer of sorbet and lemonade,

I tire of my own frivolity. I am the grasshopper,

not the ant.  I have made ice cream

when I should have been earning 

money and making plans to move.

The wolf at the door

in the form of a hurricane 

or a biopsy or election results.

I dream of a monastery in the desert, far

from the maniacal.

I saw the sign early,

walking by flashlight, startled 

by my bear shaped shadow.

In the summer, I scrambled up the rock face

to gather berries.  In the fall,

I fight the urge to hibernate.

We will comment on the coldness 

of this winter.  I struggle

to stay awake.  In my sewing

basket, a small ball of yarn.

I think of my grandmother 

who knitted socks of all sizes,

her form of resistance.

I prefer scarves.  I have always chosen

long lines: poetry or code or check out line,

a chain to connect us all.