Saturday 6 July 2019


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/.


1 comment:

  1. You have a way with endings--the buildup was fun, too!

    ReplyDelete