Stitching things together, 2007 I: Tracing the pattern I stab the curved needle into broken skin pulling edges together with blue, nylon sutures II: Alterations my father was a tailor on Haufgass in Zhetl, 1931 running his thumb over loose threads after he set the pigeons free red ribbons tied to their legs on May 1st he sat in Lushinkes gaol for months urine poured into his Communist nostrils my grandfather shared a bottle of vodka with the guard and put his son on board the SS Moreton Bay in 1938, before the storm began we sacrifice everything for our children father said as he sewed coats in Melbourne looking from the window down onto Flinders Lane as men loaded mannequins into trucks while Europe blazed and swallowed up his youth, his love, his life he basted coat sleeves and pad-stitched lapels III: Pressing the Seams local anaesthetic wears off the laceration begins to throb the pain of the body split open, returns © Leah Kaminsky Leah Kaminsky is an award-winning doctor-writer. The author of two non-fiction books and a poetry book, she is currently completing her first novel. She is editor of a forthcoming anthology of prominent physician-writers. She studied at NYU and the Iowa Writers Workshop and has published short fiction and poetry in many literary magazines and newspapers. She lives in Melbourne.