Anne Grimes
The Green Dress
A child’s hand creeps up
fingers the rivered silk-flow of a dress.
On her sideboard one photograph,
a wartime bride, wide-shouldered,
hair rolled, hat a tipped plate,
Sid self-conscious in his suit.
For years her routine set
as her appointed hair,
her clothes pressed and tailored.
She has kept all her surfaces immaculate.
When did we notice a change?
A film of dust, stray wisp of hair.
The obsessions, ‘I just wanted
to trail my fingers in her watery dress.
They said, ‘Don’t be so personal’.
It made me cry’.
She is beginning to lose her edges.
An ice sculpture slides towards melt.
Flashes of perception, blue eyes direct.
‘I think I’m going mad’.
She scrabbles in her handbag
as a dog scratches earth for a bone
and looks at us fiercely:
‘They said I was being personal.
I was only stroking the satin
of her rippling jade-green dress’.
Page(s) 22
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