Meditation on a Nineteen-sixties Dress Pattern

Summer, 2010 / No. 24

On the face of a yellowed, dog-eared package,

they lounge with sly smiles, coiffed hair,

jackets cinched/straight; skirts dirndl/sheath,

perpetual Easter shades of yellow, pink, ice blue.

White gloves, dainty pointing toes in chaste pumps,

perfection of pale no-context watercolour,

they gesture calmly in their void,

the promise of life lived through clothes.

Lovely synthetic flock, unworried

about wandering husbands, unpaid taxes,

cruel cuts by the coffee klatch;

forever fresh, ready for the party

that must be on the inside of the envelope.