Clothes Make the Girl

by Oonah V Joslin

My sister wore taffeta

A beetle of a dress; skirt wings,

a drizzle of spider’s web on claret.

Plentiful post war pleats splayed

black like a piano accordion

playing a thousand underskirts

that danced around her

tiny waist.

Black gloves,

four-inch stilettos

patent maroon bows.

An outfit.

My sister wore

summery shades of lemon and white,

little pink roses, blushed like her

complexion;

like fifties-style wall paper

too discreet for bedroom talk,

charms hidden beneath

elegant passions.

When my day came

it was all mini skirts and sex.

I had neither the legs

nor interest.

* * * * *

Oonah V Joslin is poetry editor at The Linnet’s Wings. She has won prizes for both poetry and micro-fiction. Her book Three Pounds of Cells ISBN: 13: 978-1535486491 is available online from Linnet’s Wings Press and you can see and hear Oonah read in this National Trust video. The first part of her novella A Genie in a Jam is serialised at Bewildering Stories, along with a large body of her work (see Bibliography). You can follow Oonah on Facebook or at Parallel Oonahverse https://oovj.wordpress.com/.