The BlueIris Semi-Nightly Poetry Break, 10/24/08

[BlueIris]

"Common Dressing Room"

Whoever you are, however bashful,
come in. There are those
who have come in
before you and stand
in support hose insupportable, and wave
the phototropic arms clambering

for sleeve holes, heads emergent
as flowers in science films speed
open, open. Some of them

are beside themselves—the wig
on the chair like a loose
Pomeranian, the living bra
uninhabited on its hook
on the wall—         Some preen. Some won't

look up. Some mothers prod
their daughters as though
they were dissatisfactory

starfruit. Whoever
you are, look here: it is lush
to be female, wild
with misery and dangers.

—Terri Ford