"Hands Doing Traditional Weaving, Peru" by Richard I'Anson/Lonely Planet Images

Arpilleras: three-dimensional wall-hangings
of burlap, decorated with cloth figures to
create scenes of everyday life. In 1974
arpilleras protesting the excesses of the
military regime in Chile began to appear.
Although forbidden by the government, they
found their way around the globe.

Woman to woman, they hunch
over their sewing, voices hushed
in clandestine acts of peace.

They snip fabric in brilliant hues,
form tiny skirts and dresses, whip
wool around rough edges for
multicolored hems, chain-stitch
red smiles on stuffed-sock faces.

They whisper against mud walls
of village houses, learn of a husband
taken in dark of moon. A son,
too young to marry, old enough
to be betrayed, lies by a dirt track
streaming blood from his legless trunk.

My arpillera: a thin man in pink trousers
totes a yellow sack on his back, two girls
rush precious bundles to a clinic
white with windows, aqua steps.

A young woman swaddles her baby in burlap
as a van, red cross on its door,
speeds up the pink road to safety.
Andean peaks of Chile rim the sky.

At the panel's bottom, trees shelter
gaudy dwellings, one with gingham roof.
From top right on a crooked path,
dread dressed in black
stalks unwary girl in gold.

BIO: Patricia Wellingham-Jones, a former psychology researcher and writer/editor, is a three-time Pushcart Prize nominee. She has work published in numerous anthologies, journals, and internet magazines including Möbius, Poetry Depth Quarterly, Phoebe, A Room of Her Own, Visions International, Red River Review, Tiger's Eye, Horsethief's Journal, Midwest Poetry Review, Creekwalker, Rattlesnake Review, Nanny Fanny, Taj Mahal Review, Niederngasse, and Thunder Sandwich. She edited River Voices: Poets of Butte, Shasta, Tehama and Trinity Counties, California and Labyrinth: Poems & Prose. Joining the chapbook, Don't Turn Away: Poems About Breast Cancer, are her collections, Apple Blossoms at Eye Level, A Gathering Glance (#43 in the Lummox Press Little Red Book series), and Bags. She was named Featured Writer for March/April 2002 at www.OutStretch.net, in August 2003 Purse Stories (www.PurseStories.com), in Autumn 2003 Tiger's Eye, and March 2004 Long Story Short. Her winning poem was set to music in the SongText Contest, 2003 (www.songsforall.com). Recent awards include the Reuben Rose International Poetry Prize (Israel) and Surprise Poetry Slam Grand Prize, Apollo's Lyre (www.apolloslyre.com/). Her website is www.snowcrest.net/pamelaj/wellinghamjones/home.htm. Email: c/o Moondance (Photo credit Rick Jones)