Page 95 of The Secret to Belonging

skating

making love

you fall back into a rhythm at school

weaving at the loom

holiday horror stories

plans for the spring

you don’t share your misfortune

you’re moving on

husflidskole hosts an open house

every class displays their work

the kafena buzzes with families and friends

Bjørn takes the day off to attend

to see what’s happening

in our local schools, he says

but you know that’s just his excuse

to support you and your work

you try to remember a time when your parents

came to any of your school events back home

you can’t

because they never did

second semester is about synthesizing

theory and technique into one final project

you confer with Elinor

browse dozens of textile magazines

eventually decide on a wool pledd

the style of fringed blanket found in every cabin

up and down the Norwegian coastline

you’ll weave in traditional husflid colors

purples, blues, fuchsias, teals

the color of the nordlys