China Made
She sits before her grey machine,
_knits, cottons, or brocade;
with sweating she begins to sew
_to create China made.
Her stitches— even, fine, and tight
_without due accolade;
her nimble fingers graft and grind,
_in sewing China made.
I see her in my mental eye,
_I’m saddened and dismayed
because of all her sufferings, just to
_make my China made.
Oh, what a life this woman’s had,
_how grossly underpaid!
Because we like our stuff so cheap,
_so easy, China made!
How life is unfair to this soul,
_victim of global trade!
A slave of Communism’s chains,
_unfreely China made.
Oh, does she sew long slogging hours,
_her shopwork overstayed?
What freedom does she have at all,
_producing China made?
Again I touch my hemline, whether
_knitted or crocheted,
caressing all her handiwork
_in thanks for China made.
I’ve thought of her and think of her,
_the noble, strong bondmaid,
I and my clothing honor her,
_the woman China made.
Theresa Werba (formerly known to the SCP community as Theresa Rodriguez) is the author of eight books, including What Was and Is: Formal Poetry and Free Verse, and Sonnets, a collection of sixty-five Shakespearean, Spenserian, and Petrarchan sonnets. Her work appears in numerous journals, websites, and online publications, including the SCP Journal. She has been featured on Classical Poets Live where she discusses musicality and elocution in formal poetry. She is a contributing writer for Classical Singer Magazine. Werba’s background as a Classical singer informs her dramatic poetry readings which are available on Youtube @thesonnetqueen. Her website is www.theresawerba.com.
I have been a seamstress all my life, it is my “third love” after singing and writing… I do feel a strong connection to the unseen hands and sewers that have made so much of what we use and wear today, in nations so far away… also both my paternal Jewish great-grandfathers, Abraham Wierzbolowski (which became Werblowsky and then Werba) and Moses Kaminsky Epstein, were tailors in the Pale of Settlement who emigrated in the 1890’s from Poland and Russia… so sewing is truly in my blood!!!
Thanks for this readable and thought-provoking poem. Good work, with a serious theme.
Thank you very much David!!