DRESSING ROOM WITHOUT CURTAINS
They pose.
Young bodies mirrored to infinity.
Curves defined by underwire.
They model,
Clothes dangling price tags like jewelry.
They pirouette,
As spotlights touch their hair with gold.
My daughter.
Knows this drill.
Reaching to a row of costumes,
Trying each, then discarding.
The pile of castoffs grows while
I hover,
A voyeur in the doorway,
Dazzled by the bright hard image
Of girl on girl on girl.
—from Rattle #28, Winter 2007
__________
Cheryl Dellasega, CNRP, PhD: “How women feel about their bodies has been a theme in many of my books; dressing rooms are the stage where many of these tensions get acted out. The freedom of the girls in this poem was amazing, and in direct contrast to a more recent experience where a girl modeled a size ‘zero’ prom gown for her mother. What does it mean to be nothing?”
