A Love Poem With Knitting Reference

ENCOUNTER

they met and sparked with the
speed of knitting needles each
click clack stitch picked up without a hitch

beginning in separate sweaters
they unravelled as eagerly
as children at a seaside summer
flopped spread-eagled onto the
growing woollen blanket of
their easy intimacy

and swimming and scissoring
in the skein of their trampoline
they were two tangled kittens
with spring-tipped claws
momentarily hidden in a
woolly widerness

Joy Kogawa
Jericho Road
McClelland and Stewart 1977