House Dress Day
Anna Mitchell

I call it House Dress Day because today
I wear a house dress
and I think of all the
hundreds and thousands and millions
of voices
phantoms of roses, peonies, hydrangea, etc.
caged in the infinitesimal openings
between its cotton threads
(dyed sage, aqua and crisp faded lavender)
and when I wear it
alone
my nipples chafing slightly
on the coarseness
of its inside
I listen to the voices weep
tears of dish soap/milk/tomato sauce,
and other liquids
which darken the folds
at the cruxes of my arms
and the stiff collar
around my neck.

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