The Patchwork Quilt

The Little French doll on the bureau sat

And I wondered what she was staring at.

It wasn't the rug with the braided row

Or the doorstop cat that stood just so,

But the Patchwork Quilt on the walnut bed.

"Oh, where did you get your colors," she said,

"Of blue calico and pink crinoline

And checker-board checks as straight as a pin?

Antique French Doll

"I was made in the days of the Lamplight Glow

By a Dear Little Girl that I used to know,"

Said the Patchwork Quilt with a pensive air

To the Little French Doll with the golden hair.

"This calico patch of daintiest hue

Just matched her eyes of violet blue,

And her hair hung down in a frozen braid,

As she romped and played 'neath the locust shade.

"This pink was a piece of a dimity gown

That she wore when the soldiers marched into town.

To the drum's wild beat and the cannon's roar

She said good-bye at the swinging door

To the lad who never came back to see

Her waiting beneath the locust tree.

I'll always remember this white one, I guess.

For this was to be her wedding dress.

Vintage Pastel Patchwork Quilt

"This Dear Little Girl that I used to know

Comes drifting back from the Long Ago.

She stitched her hopes and her rosy dreams,

Her smiles and tears in these tiny seams,

And she lives today as in days gone by."

But the Little French Doll made no reply,

She sat very still with the dreamiest stare,

And I saw a tear-drop glisten there.

"The Patchwork Quilt"

Inez Culver Corbin

American poet