Once,
Someone spun the first yarn,
Plotted how to twist string
From fibres, threshed from hemp.
Soon others were roped-in,
Drawn to the string business.
String can be tied with knots.
Knots brought tethering, one
Thing hitched to another.
String set someone wondering
About weaving, but string
Was not thread. Genius
To think to gather wool,
From thorns that snagged a fleece,
Or wind the silky line
That spools from boiled cocoons.
An industry soon loomed
For this new cloth took dye.
Colour carried status,
Inspired trade and travel.
No journeying merchant
Sets off without a tale
To jolly the company.
He has no narrative
But this, spun through history,
Twisted like all good yarn.