The sampler

 

The sea sickness has passed now

and I sew to while away the time

I have embroidered a border of blue

waves and worked

my letters in coloured silks

I remembered by heart

my Bible verses, lines from Lord Byron

 

I stitch the name of this, my father’s ship

the Ann & Jane Pritchard of Pwllheli

and where we are bound

Hamburg, by way of Burnt Island

and then there’s just room enough

for Laura B. Roberts of Ty Gwyn, aged 13

in the year of our Lord, 1888

 

 

 

 

Published in Oxford Magazine, 2018