Frameless Windows, Squares of Light

The poem I chose to write about is "Humble Jar", from Cathy's second book of poetry titled "Frameless Windows, Squares of Light," published in 1988. This poem is about her mother, a seamstress, and how she's always resourceful.

She had a button for every emergency,
the way she just happened to have
a band-aid in her wallet
or some chewing gum in a back pocket
she'd bring these out as if by magic,
waving a tootsie roll like a wand.
(14-19)

Cathy's mother didn't have a cool job that she could brag about to her friends, but it didn't matter. She is proud to have a mother that saves the day when something goes wrong. She always has the things that are needed at exactly the right moment, even if it seems unlikely that anyone would have it. Cathy never thought of these small tasks as important when she was young, but now that she thinks back, she appreciates all that her mother has done for her.

The buttons that her mother kept in a jar were not only useful in emergencies, but also a trip into the past.

A dip into that humble jar
repaired a shirt,
but it also retrieved a moment
out of a cluttered life
(77-80)

The buttons were kept even though they were never needed for the original shirt it came with, and long after the shirt is donated, the buttons were still in the jar. Cathy shows that everything has a story behind it, no matter how insignificant they might seem at first. Anything can be a relic into the past, not only photographs.