Pink Leg Warmers

Spring cleaning
not quite, given
the date
you might call it
Summer cleaning.

I've always had difficulty
with that whole
Spring and Fall cleaning
concept.

I clean when the spirit moves
and that isn't often.

Anyway yesterday
I cleaned the walk-in closet
in the red room (Jame's room)
although Jame hasn't lived here
for the better part of twenty years.

I found "the leg warmers,"
pink with delicate cables
intricate stitches.

Hours and hours
of detailed patterning,
followed by careful matching
for the second warmer
attest to a Mother's love
or a knitter's sheer insanity.

Not knitted in the round
a friend, Carol Mulford,
did the sewing...
almost invisible seams.

An unexpected find
they catapulted me back
twenty-five years.

Gloria Stevens' exercise class...
days of arobic exercise,
sweating in black tights and leotards...

Jame wearing her leg warmers...

Eating bagels
slathered with butter
as the after class treat...
(Gaining weight instead of losing,
oh my, the bagels had to go.)

Laughter... Camaraderie!
All the girls attended
at one time or another.

Leg warmers
have once again gained favor.
Maybe Jame will wear them.

I know
there will come a day
(probably ten years from now)
when Miss Frances-my ballerina-
will covet those leg warmers.

Isn't it fortuitous
that I had the foresight
to make them pink?