Needlework: Cross-Stitch

I put one little slanting stitch
On another little slanting stitch,
Forming rows of crisscross squares,
Until I had made a peacock;
And always my hands tingled
With the song of my needle:

A little crisscross stitch I take —
Yellow and green and blue;
Out of a sea of them I make
Beautiful peacock you.

Yet finished,
He disappointed me,
And I shuddered at his restraint.
But that night
When he walked out of the sleepy shadows,
With one wink of a wicked, yellow-lidded eye,
I was satisfied.

I took a thread of every shade —
Yellow and green and blue;
Out of a sea of them I made
Beautiful peacock you.