Don't Ask the Professor

Don’t bring any more naked questions
for me to clothe with answers.
Styles change too fast to keep up with
and I’m going out of business.
For one thing, I can’t get material
I can depend on, it’s shoddy, shrinks
when wet, won’t hold a press. It’s hard
to match with thread, seams gap,
alterations show, bias ravels,
an uneven weave spoils the pattern . . .
Perhaps my eye isn’t what it was,
the scissors don’t cut true along
the chalk line, when I pin pieces
together the shape won’t hold and
the pins fall out. I say the situation
is out of hand and you better try
ready-made styles. I’m tired of trying
to please customers who don’t want
my kind of truth anymore, let them shop
for answers in some other place.