My jar of Buttons

By Ted Kooser

From Delights & Shadows

A Jar of Buttons

This is a core sample

from the floor of the Sea of Mending,

a cylinder packed with shells

that over many years

sank through fathoms of shirts –

pearl buttons, blue buttons –

and settled together

beneath waves of perseverance,

an ocean upon which

generations of women set forth,

under the sails of gingham curtains,

and, seated side by side

on decks sometimes salted by tears,

made small but important repairs.