Cloth Memories

(this is a more stream-of-consciousness work...it is just the rough product of my thoughts on looking at some of my clothes strewn around, and having some memories triggered by specific pieces...)


“Cloth Memories”


Colorful clothes, discarded skins
I pile in puddles
On the sun-raked floor,
Rumpling the afternoon’s
Geometry of light and dark
Across the floor,
Piling up to the drawer,
I open, and find
Blooming, the garden
Sensual, adornment of body,
Gathered, over time,
Seduction intended
Always for different men,
And colors, fabrics,
Now suspended in
Hush, harsh memories,
Those bitter to my recollection,
Acrid as unwashed clothes.
Wrapping and unwrapping
My self, frail-feeling frame,
These cloth signals of present,
And continuous past,
And limited, unknowable ‘to be…”
Resist my memorial-ization
Very little, only with the weight
Of present moment, self-respect,
Budging, lovely shapes create,
As though suspended in the breeze,
Drying in due time,
Pushing their heft, color, shape, size
Against the air, accordingly,
Suspended, waving, to hypnotize.
I plunge a hand into the tangle of lace,
And think of the many
Willing to love or lie of love,
To receive The Promise kept
By clothed and unclothed
Womb’s Immortality, or,
At the least, to write a memory
In the fabric, and disturb my peace.