My mother would pull up my covers,
Kiss my cheek, and flip the tape
In my cassette player,
Turn off the light.
The soft music would play next to my head-
Ariel and Belle- singing me to sleep.
In my dreams
I would wake
In my bed.
A figure with dark eyes
And red hair
Made of twine thread-
Like a fearsome Raggedy Andy-
Perched on the edge.
Sitting on the blanket
My mother made me.
His body of patches
Stitched crudely,
Little red hearts
On white cloth
And yellow stars
Sown into blue.
His mouth would open,
A garish rip,
And he’d whisper
The sweet
Childish lyrics.
I would clench my blanket
My mother made me
Around my neck
And the patchwork man
Kept singing.
I would close my eyes
Will him away.
Patch by patch
He would disappear.
My mother
Would run to my room
And I would
Close
My
Eyes
And she would disappear.
And she would disappear.
I would lay in bed at night listening to my old cassette player with disney songs like "I can show you the world" after my mom tucked me in I would fall asleep and always have the same nightmare of a man sitting at the edge of my bed with tangled, thread-like bright red hair his body mod of patches of quilt stitched together crudely in al different colors and patterns- little red heard and yellow stars and he would sing the music from my cassette player to me i would close my eyes in my dreams and imagine him dissolving patch by patch to make him go away
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