Killing the Dress
- Killing the Dress
Like threads being pulled outfrom the stamen, veiny flower,we are undoing the wedding dress.It hung on a hook in the bedroom closet.It collected dust, tears, pollen.At night, when we were sleeping,it would slip off the hanger and wend its wayaround the room.It has spent this time festering in the dustbeneath the bed, criticizing the candlefor its somber embrace. It proclaims miseryin every dark corner.We are killing the dress, pluckingfeathers. I wish it would bleed; I wishit would cry out as it deflates.I wish I knew how to keep itfrom acting the martyr. [End Page 266]
Molly Sutton Kiefer is poetry editor at Midway Journal and runs the blog Balancing the Tide: Motherhood and the Arts An Interview Project. She lives in Red Wing, Minnesota with her husband and daughter and is working on a manuscript on (in)fertility.
