Gowns

January 2010

“Hold back the edges of your gowns ladies, we’re going through hell!”
                     Signed William Carlos Williams.

Cold wasn’t it?
“Oh bitter, it was!”
Cold, cold so cold-
I still have snow in my boots.
“And sun on your face?”
How unusual how strange,
I see it now trickling, trickling
What patience, what, what-
What timing you have!

“I suppose! Am I horribly late?”

(Ladies, ladies. Hold on tight now, sweep
The hair from your cheeks, button up those coats!)

Only a little, no matter-
What will you have?
“Just a tea, perhaps some of that cake!”

Someone! Someone! Service!

A slice of cake, yes, tea!
For me? A coffee, black,
Two sugars- of course I won’t have
Milk!

How melancholy you look!

“Sorry,”

Your eyes are laden with bags,
How pale you are and that hair.
What an unkempt mess it is!
You should have it cut!

“Cut? Cut! Cut, yes perhaps I shall.
I think-
I will have it layered.
I would look much younger with
My fringe across my face!
I’m feeling it you see!
And me only 31!
Time I daresay has taken over me!
It has caught me at any rate.”

(“Ladies, ladies, tighter! We are reaching quite  a pace.)

Author's Note

Constructive destruction please

Reviews

[Alicante lullaby]

jeez,,,iam speechless,,,iam gonna tell you to please,give descriptions,,,what are you thinking or the plot or whatever,,,your writes,,,i'd rather call them abstract,,,or perhaps i am not capable of understanding mighty mind as yours,,,but yet it dwells me into vivid scenes,,purple grapes,black sugar less tea,,,,when you ended,,,, time i daresay ,,,,,i thought i saw some figure sitting on a chair growing ,2years,9 years,19 and then 90,,,,something really striking [i still have,,,,,,,face],,,anyhow,my hunches yet i love what you have written,,,,saddening and depiction of our nature,lots of perhapses,,,,,,,,,

[Emily B]

do you know the Amy Lowell poem "Patterns"? To me, this is along similar lines . . . the movement in this was strange and it took me a moment to acclimate but I think you're on the right path.