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  • The Night I Wore the Purple Dress
  • January Gill O’Neil (bio)

I was Chambord floatingin bubbles of Prosecco. I wasa scallop wrapped in bacon.Sleeveless, with seams that contouredand material that breathed,I liked when men placedthe flat of their handsagainst my backagainst the gold zipper runningdown the length of my dress.Easy access, I teased.This dress with the zipperlike the Mississippi flowingthe entire length of the United Statesmeandering toward the Gulf of Mexicodown in the Delta.It owned me, that dress,dark as night but not nightdark as closed eyelidsthe wispy, veiny, purplish lightthat seeps through when making a wish—a condition of longingthat creates more longing.Was I indigo?Was I amethyst or cobalt?That night I was the lifeof the party, in a dressthe color I could not name. [End Page 153]

January Gill O’Neil

january gill o’neil is the author of Misery Islands, published in 2014, and Underlife, published in 2009, both from CavanKerry Press. A third collection, Rewilding, was published by CavanKerry Press in November 2018. She is the executive director of the Massachusetts Poetry Festival and an assistant professor of English at Salem State University.

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