Kate Peters: “I departed in a small ship of needs”
About This Poem:
“The website stuff4tots.com describes a mother as
‘the one who bears the burden of everything good and bad as the days go on.’” -Kate Peters
I departed in a small ship of needs
I don’t know how many times my mom has shown me how to repair a lost button. She
instructs me: “Okay, it’s just... tie a knot, thread through, find the path, secure, now....
secure it twice.”
My mother mends the small things in my life. It’s just 6 steps... wait, is that right?
Do you know how to sew on a button? Do you know how to repair your life?
The problem is I will always need my problem.
The solution is I will always need my mother.
For over 700 years, residents of Geel (a town in Belgium, less than an hour’s drive from
Antwerp) have been hosts, accepting people with mental illness—often very severe
mental disorders—into their homes and caring for them, sometimes for many years. In
Geel, they are not called patients, but guests or boarders. In 2016, there were around
250 guests in Geel.
I read about a man in Geel who twists the buttons of his dress shirts until they ease into
the palms of his hands. Every day. Every single one of them.
The man’s host mother sews on his buttons. Every night. Every single one of them.
I’ve never lost a button on purpose. But I’m tempted.
When I watch her nimble fingers and sturdy gaze.
