Florida FAST Practice Test 9

The Mender

¹I hated Mother's basket by her chair,

²the darning egg, the needle and the wool,

³the heels she wove back whole with patient care

⁴while I sat burning, late again for school.

⁵I thought each patch announced that we were poor,

⁶a ledger any passing eye could read,

⁷and pulled my boots on quickly at the door

⁸so no one at the bus stop saw our need.

⁹But she is gone, and I have found the box

¹⁰of darning things she left me on a shelf,

¹¹and when I sit to mend my daughter's socks

¹²I hear her humming, and I hum myself.

¹³It was not want that made her stitch and stay;

¹⁴it was refusing to throw love away.