If you pull a thread out from the
seam of your blouse,
You'll discover it fibers are tied,
To a strand, quite pronounced,
hanging out of your house,
And across the vast landscape
outside,
Through the yards and the trees and
the driveways and streets,
Passing forests and rivers and lakes,
Crossing malls, it runs free twixt
the fashion boutiques,
Beading townships and counties and
states.
Winding, twining, it leads across
mountains and seas,
Ocean waves grace its drape, light
and lithe,
On a stretched stringing spree 'till
at last finally,
It arrives in the hands of a child.
She is stitching this cord, once
again and once more,
Seeming almost to be lost in play,
Though she's never before known a
life free of chore,
In her work, which earns pennies per
day.
Pay which relatively helps her family
to feed,
Every member, and keep themselves
clothed.
And this trade seems quite fair, till
you stop and compare,
How you live with the life this girl
knows.
The horizon she sees from her small
factory,
Fades in hemlines and collars and
sleeves,
And the tag's care instructions and fiber
construction,
Are all that this girl ever reads.
Now, although you might say that
she's earning a wage,
And she's expertly trained in her
tools,
She's enslaved, educated to keep her
this way.
No one graduates from such a school.
She perhaps feels some pride as she
works by the side,
Of her sister, her mother and aunt,
But for what they achieve, she will
never believe,
She can do any more, for she can't.
Yet, her questioning mind is kept
well occupied,
As the frantic production line rolls,
And I doubt she's enlightened at all
to her strife,
Cause she's just barely 7 years old.
Every stitch she pulls through is
still sutured to you,
Reaching miles to the style you
adorn,
And those slight tugs of truth, you
might feel just a few,
But how nicely it flatters your form!
As the mirror reflects, that sheer
garment's effects,
Distract so, and perhaps you forgot,
That young girl, and the thread that implies
and connects,
And the world webbed in tangles and
knots.