What She Wore

by Robbi Nester

My mother was so proud

of the graceful way she wore

her clothes. She posed before the three-way

mirror at the store, shopped compulsively,

closets and spare room filled with shirts

and shoes she never wore, still

in bags and boxes. I can see her,

dressed for going out, in a summer

shirtwaist, a poplin print of women

wearing multi-colored gowns, whirling

by themselves before the mirror.

The wide skirt bloomed around her,

patent leather belt cinching her waist.

Her red mouth, perfect teeth, dark skin

beneath a cloud of curls. No wonder

she was popular, a party girl, when she

was young. Always singing, smiling,

proud of her correctness, her perfect

diction, wasted in the God-forsaken

neighborhood where I grew up.

What she didn’t buy, she made herself,

sewing machine whirring, fabric flying

under her fingers.  She loved to dress me too,

made me all the outfits I imagined, like a purple

thigh-high mini-dress with tiny stained-glass buttons,

matching scarf, fringed in silver silk. More than

once, the high school sent me home

for wearing “indecent” outfits she had made.

My mother stood before me as before the mirror,

proud of my lovely shape, so like her own.

* * * * *

"What She Wore" is from Robbi Nester's 2019 collection Narrow Bridge, available at: https://mainstreetragbookstore.com/narrow-bridge-robbi-nester/.

Robbi Nester is the author of four books of poetry: a chapbook, Balance (White Violet, 2012), and three collections, including A Likely Story (Moon Tide, 2014); Other-Wise (Kelsay, 2017); and Narrow Bridge (Main Street Rag, 2019). She has also edited two anthologies-The Liberal Media Made Me Do It! (Nine Toes, 2014) and an Ekphrastic e-book, Over the Moon: Birds, Beasts, and Trees--celebrating the photography of Beth Moon (published as an issue of Poemeleon Poetry Journal).