HOW TO GO ABOUT UNDERSTANDING WITHOUT STEPPING ON IT DIRECTLY
HOW TO GO ABOUT UNDERSTANDING WITHOUT STEPPING ON IT DIRECTLY
by Cheryl Hicks
I remember developing breasts,
(it was the same year the Russians launched Sputnik)
and going with my aunt to buy my first fully-trained bra,
and learning from the lady at Tots-to-Teens
how important it would be someday
to bend over at the waist when I put it on
and the first time I bent over.
I remember learning that there were men in the world
who wanted to teach me about the men in the world,
and how the faint strong smell of bleach
tinted my sheets last week after I washed the colors
with the whites and left them on the line to dry
bleeding happily all together.
I don’t remember learning I would die,
but it must have been like stepping casually
into a freshly laundered dream,
like stepping into a white tulip skirt
trimmed round the hem
with crimson quatrefoils and tears.
I wonder if I cried,
and when the flowers will start to bleed.
The first couple of lines led me to believe i was reading a comedy piece, but the tone quickly changed into a harsh coming of age/coming to grips loss of innocence.
I appreciated the laundry/clothes motiff thru-out and use of symbology
with ‘white’, ‘bleach’, ‘bleed’ and ‘colors’. I think there’s probably no better way to say this thing about men the way you said it:
“I remember learning that there were men in the world
who wanted to teach me about the men in the world…” –well put.
It’s good to take-in a poem with articulate use of craft and conveyance of genuine experience and feeling. thx for sharing!