Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Poems written in a semi-delirious state

"dream dress"
peeking out from lace hems
ruddy knees, knocked from growth
stare
long legs, staked
lead to clumsy pigeon-ed be-shoed feet
hazily she saunters
over to the glass
where
she looks past her own reflection
from underneath bonnet-ed eyes
and clasps her hands in
celebration
at what she then beholds there
above her somewhere
near heaven
is the dress she always dreamed of
there on the headless mannequin
under glaring lamps
it gloats
dazed she leans
against the store window
and offers a prayer to it
"with your delicate layers,
your waves of unrepentant clothe
spilling out from high hips onto air
with your lace collar
and bejeweled neck
i will deliver you from your masters
from this public spectacle
and allow you and i to be one
please wait until the day
when we can sip tea and
eat cake"
closing her eyes and
lifting her prayer to god
she leans away
and
makes one final plead
farewell
to the dress of
her dreams.

"today i am a maiden"
alone in a room
she did not know
she came
to the realization
that she was not
the same
these clothes
where not her clothes
these things
where not her things
suddenly
in a violent gesture
she flings herself to the wall
and tears
down
any thing unfamiliar
the posters
of smiling pop stars
the calendar of kittens
the little league
ribbons
and throws them down
she looks at her
self
in the mirror and
says
"i am not myself today"
or any day
"i am a maiden"
she takes the box
she hid in the shameful
closet corner
and sits it on the dresser
high as her heart
she removes the
poofy, pink, dress
and slips it
over her
self
she fixes her
poofy, white, petticoat
and afixes her
white bonnet
by the time she
was done
putting on the socks
and shoes
and strands of
pearl bracelets
she was nearly
out
of
breath
shyly, she slid
in front of the mirror
and for the first time
saw herself
for who she really was
smiling
she floated
down the stairs
grabbed her parasol
conspicuously used as
an innocent umbrella
past her
a-gasped mother
and snickering siblings
opened the door wide
and announced
"today and everyday
I, am a maiden!"
and lept out into
the burning world.

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