Poems From My Dress

COVER PHOTO: The Green Dress- Thomas Wilmer Dewing taken from the National Gallery of Art.

The Cardboard Box

Light pours in often

Through the top of my home 

It glitters and gleams 

I sigh and I weep

I do not know what lies beyond this life 

It’s comfort, but discolored 

Patient, but for others.

Waves roll over in frequent

I see them through the cracks

They wash and sing softly

I wish I were out and about like that!

My beautiful emerald 

About to get dull 

Will I turn to ashes?

I thought, and I sulked

Then my stashes of dreams

Came quickly to life 

When I heard someone say 

That one, tonight 

That one, tonight?

Was he pointing at me? 

Would I finally see 

The beautiful beach?

Travels from Point Pleasant Beach

Whispers of cities float through the air

Tall, lofty buildings 

And not many that care

PHOTO CREDIT: Jonathan Edwards/Unsplash: Birds flying over Point Pleasant Beach in the early morning

About anything other than their little life

I hope that I’m lucky

And get one who’s nice.

Over my racing thoughts 

Being out of the box

I’m told that I’m leaving at 3 o'clock.

Thinking, little white sundresses look cute for tea 

But I’m a rich emerald

No wonder she chose me!

I’m going to Boston,
Massachusetts, they say

I get visions of ducks paving the way 

I can’t hardly wait to board and to leave

But something says

Wait, aren’t you scared, little thing?

PHOTO CREDITS: Spencer Bergen / Unsplash - Ducks on the Charles River

I’m leaving this shore, where tides drift in 

Like lazy, old rocking chairs 

And I love it like kin.

I look all around me, take one last peek 

I’m going to Boston…

When I say that, it’s meek

Am I afraid? Not really, I can’t fear the unknown

I’m going to Boston!

Wrap me up, here we go.

The Girl

Bright blue eyes look down

My life, it flickers by me 

In an instant, home.

The Wedding of A Friend

She chose me first

At the top of her drawer.

My new home was wood

Not real, from a store.

I didn’t have to worry if I would be chosen today

Or tomorrow, tonight,

For in some silent way,

I understood the weight of this world 

I was made to make happy

I was made for a girl.

I felt her heart racing as I pressed to her skin 

I tried to remind her 

Be proud and give in 

To champagne toasts and greetings

And ivory and pearl

To somebody else’s smile, she’d curl.

She was a galaxy

True freedom and life. 

With songs catching her motion 

I swayed in delight

I wish so truly that she could just be 

Her beautiful self

Because of me.

When girls chattered around her 

She went fairly mute

Is she looking at rings, thinking 

Damn it or shoot?

Their fingers that shine and bedazzle away

I know it’s a symbol of one special day

She brushes it off with her heels in her hand 

And she walks back to the car 

No token in hand

Tomorrow I know I’ll get clean in the wash 

Then ironed and hung 

Back in my spot 

I feel someone's love had just begun 

But this girls heart had just been spun.

In Between

I gained knowledge from the waiting

Though it hurt me the most 

when I would see flashes of blue and yellow 

swirling before me

I was patient for months, 

I was folded so nice and neat

through October, November, December

A new year had begun

without me

Proposal

She wore me like water

Diamonds dripped down her neck

Something had changed about her since the last time we’d met, and I liked it.

I had been seemingly asleep for years…

Refreshing. 

I was glad to prance again, like sunlight off a mirror in the attic

Bouncing off the city lights,

fabric wrapping around her ankles.

Freeing.

We walked hand in hand with a familiar man I recognized from when she first got me.

I thought she was about to start moving to the pounding rhythm 

Until I realized it was just her heart

Until I realized he was on one knee.

Proposing.

Reflections

I do not have to be called upon by a million flashing lights to make someone's day 

Though my simplistic beauty is somebody else's dripping envy 

It could also be the joy 

Or a reminder that something lucky is coming 

Or make him realize that 

She is the love of his life

There I will be,

Pressed, delicate, listening 

When she stands strong in front of a corporate office

That is filled with men in suits bought with dirty money, who drive dirty cars 

And live dirty lives

I’ll wrap around her in a reminder that her value is not diminished 

It is only hidden to eyes that are too blind to look past me

And I will be there

When she raises her daughter, she hands me down 

She hands me over 

So I can watch her little girl grow 

Go on first dates 

Cry on the staircase 

Live in melancholy fear that turns into the understanding that life is precious 

Life is precious

And it is fleeting.

But oh, isn’t it wonderful?

So much more wonderful when you take a chance 

And wear the green dress.