'What Do Women Want?' by Kim Addonizio

[wishscape.livejournal.com]

'What Do Women Want?'
by Kim Addonizio

I want a red dress.
I want it flimsy and cheap,
I want it too tight, I want to wear it
until someone tears it off me.
I want it sleeveless and backless,
this dress, so no one has to guess
what's underneath. I want to walk down
the street past Thrifty's and the hardware store
with all those keys glittering in the window,
past Mr. and Mrs. Wong selling day-old
donuts in their café, past the Guerra brothers
slinging pigs from the truck and onto the dolly,
hoisting the slick snouts over their shoulders.
I want to walk like I'm the only
woman on earth and I can have my pick.
I want that red dress bad.
I want it to confirm
your worst fears about me,
to show you how little I care about you
or anything except what
I want. When I find it, I'll pull that garment
from its hanger like I'm choosing a body
to carry me into this world, through
the birth-cries and the love-cries too,
and I'll wear it like bones, like skin,
it'll be the goddamned
dress they bury me in.

Comments

[tree_and_leaf]

Nice poem, but I'm pretty sure that it's by Kim Abbonozio. It's certainly not Dorothy Parker!

[wishscape.livejournal.com]

Ack! You're so right, thank you! It was right next to one of hers in my anthology and apparently it's that easy to confuse me :)

[liliths-requiem.livejournal.com]

absolutely gorgeous. I loved this.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_lyra_b/]

Wonderful! Thanks for sharing this.

[tohx.livejournal.com]

Weird. I just posted this in my poetry archive blog (http://poeticfuck.blogspot.com) the other day. :D Such a good one!

[tokio.livejournal.com]

Fierce.

[mary-br.livejournal.com]

For some reason it made me laugh. I mean, not in a condescending way :)

[evil-twinkie.livejournal.com]

"and I'll wear it like bones, like skin,
it'll be the goddamned
dress they bury me in."

haha. YES.

[la-cienega.livejournal.com]

i love it!

[bloodrebel333.livejournal.com]

*smiles*