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Larry Kelts 
Tatters 
Larry W. Kelts 
 
 
From the book: 
 
TATTERS 
 
Your great-grandmother pieced quilts 
from outgrown shirts and pajamas. 
She made you one when you were 
a baby, before you knew making  
was her way of expressing. 
 
To hold the memories intact 
she stitched on her quilts patterns 
from my childhood in pieces  
cut from faded fabric and 
padded between the layers. 
 
You wrapped yourself in her gift, 
holding even as it turned 
ragged and dirty and scattered 
pieces of itself about 
the house.  One night, while you slept, 
 
I snuck it out and burned it 
from fear of some lingering 
disease.  And now, with tattered 
expressing, I stitch and piece. 
 
 
Larry Kelts grew up on a dairy farm in north-central Pennsylvania.  After working as a farmer, factory machinist, laboratory technician, and research scientist he obtained an MFA from Bennington College and now resides in northern Delaware where he writes poetry and frequents the art scene in Delaware and Philadelphia.  He has published poetry in a number of journals including The Broadkill Review, miller's pond, Hazmat Review, Straitjackets, and Chantarelle's Notebook. 
 
 
Tatters 
is a 28 page hand-sewn chapbook - $10.00.  
 
TO ORDER: 
 
 
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