Novice Knitter, Tangled Yarn

will someone please teach me how to knit?

weave one string through the next 

until eventually, everything makes enough sense to wear?

i'm naked with strings in knots,

hands holding bundles--of what?

what do you call a tangled thread 

bright and beautiful

but unusable?

do you put it in a drawer

for the day when someone patient 

and tending comes to do the untying?

do you snip it up into pieces,

short, partial

but at least there's something there

to salvage?

what about the knot?

the part that never comes unlocked?

like an artery near the heart

that broke, lost half its pieces

never makes the same shape again?

some things can't ever be glued back together

like string

everything a bit too tasseled at the edges

frayed at the rims

it doesn't matter 

that you long for the way it was

in the beginning

when things were neatly wound

in a wondrous order of

tidy and together

no, sometimes we must rely on 

small scraps tied with knots

stitching together a frumpy sweater

without even knowing how to knit

sometimes that's the closest

we can get 

to being clothed

in the winter