Eric Torgersen

Love on the Friendship Quilt
 
 
Roll me in designer sheets, the song from the sexy movie says,
but now it's love on wedding sheets from cousins, sensible JC Penney 
         sheets;
now it's love on the friendship quilt, with a block from Mother and
          Father  at the center;
with blocks from Peter & Ilah, Smythe & Irma, the Elmer Riggles,
from Oscar & Velma, Herb & Martha, Mr. and Mrs. H. Wischmeyer;
on the friendship quilt it's love with the lights on, it's legal, it's love 
         without whiskey, without perfume;
on the quilt it's a square dance with the same old partner and caller,
the same band's same few tunes in the same old Grange Hall;
it's for keeps on the quilt, for kids, it's for the country,
you dig deep down on the quilt for the one good reason
you came here, kept coming back, will keep on coming.
 

*first appeared in Poetry NOW

Also from Eric Torgersen:
Killing the Milk Snakes
I Will Die in Lake Superior

Contributor Bio

Eric Torgersen is Professor Emeritus of English at Central Michigan University. His most recent book is The Man Who Loved Rilke, March Street Press. Recent poems and translations of German poet Nicolas Born in Field, Eclipse, Zone 3, New Letters, Exquisite Corpse, New Ohio Review, Main Street Rag and Parting Gifts.