In the polite parlance, common usage of the day,
you are designated ‘Spinster’
on this deed of agreement for your ambitious
building plan.
An image of making in this lovely spiral stairwell,
a confluence of feminine images.
Expectant the spinner spins
preparing her dowry as in days of old,
the word now derisive meant first the maiden who spun,
making the household linen for her future home
in anticipation of her life partner.
She has a secret this spinster McAuley:
a gold ring of betrothal
a thin but pure thread of gold.
What is her dowry
but what she has to give of her very self
and what has been given to her to share from this house?
‘Maiden yet a mother’
a maid not old,
yet never to be worldly wife.
From you I reclaim the power of the spinner/spinster:
a word no longer mean or fraught with lost opportunity.
You show the spinner’s way and calling,
for in another deed of agreement
entered into with the Master Builder,
although you remain the eternal spinster,
you are bride of Christ,
busy at the wheel,
spinning,
stretching the fine fleece of God’s grace
into wool for garments of Mercy.
