After she rolled out the biscuits
and set them to rise in the window—

after she crisped the bacon
broke the eggs—

after she hung the laundry on the line
and put the baby down for a nap—

she snapped broadcloth
across the kitchen table.

She traced the pattern, cut, pieced, pinned.
Each stitch she made straight and even:

running stitches for the eyeholes,
catch stitches for the insignia patch.

A cape, hood, mask, and belt: it required weeks
of naptimes. She starched wrinkles,

bit down on a mouthful of pins,
marked the hem.
 
 
~ ~ ~

H.K. Hummel is the co-author of Short-Form Creative Writing: A Writer’s Guide and Anthology (Bloomsbury, 2018) and author of Boytreebird (Finishing Line Press, 2013) and Handmade Boats (Whale Sound, 2010). Her work has appeared in a variety of journals including the Hudson Review, Iron Horse Literary Review, Booth, and Chattahoochee Review. She is an Assistant Professor of creative writing at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.