Thursday, January 8, 2009

Poem Thursday


What Do Women Want?
by Kim Addonizio

I want a red dress.
I want it flimsy and cheap,
I want it too tight, I want to wear it
until someone tears it off me.
I want it sleeveless and backless,
this dress, so no one has to guess
what’s underneath. I want to walk down
the street past Thrifty’s and the hardware store
with all those keys glittering in the window,
past Mr. and Mrs. Wong selling day-old
donuts in their café, past the Guerra brothers
slinging pigs from the truck and onto the dolly,
hoisting the slick snouts over their shoulders.
I want to walk like I’m the only
woman on earth and I can have my pick.
I want that red dress bad.
I want it to confirm
your worst fears about me,
to show you how little I care about you
or anything except what
I want. When I find it, I’ll pull that garment
from its hanger like I’m choosing a body
to carry me into this world, through
the birth-cries and the love-cries too,
and I’ll wear it like bones, like skin,
it’ll be the goddamned
dress they bury me in.


Kim Addonizio, “What Do Women Want?” from Tell Me. Copyright �© 2000 by Kim Addonizio. Reprinted with the permission of BOA Editions, Ltd, www.boaeditions.org.

Source: Tell Me (BOA Editions, Ltd., 2000).


12 comments:

Ash said...

Wow - nothing like a woman scorned. At least that was my interpretation.

Me-ow.

Jennifer S said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jennifer S said...

Loved this. The way I got from the poem was her desire to be bold, be seen, not to be invisible. And to live her whole life as though she's always wearing a red dress.

I could use a bit of not-invisible, too.

flutter said...

I just love this.

Anonymous said...

That is a brave poem.

furiousBall said...

nice! crisp, honest and unapologetic, i digs it

Rebecca said...

LOVE it. That feeling that a red dress (or even red lipstick) brings...bold, sexy, ALIVE.

Vodka Mom said...

i loved it, loved it, loved it. It reminded me of the Wynonna Ryder song----

I could hear her singing it...

Anonymous said...

Loved this. LOVED IT!!!

the mama bird diaries said...

awesome poem.

Suzie said...

That sounds like some dress

MiViva said...

We went to dinner with friends last week, and they brought their house guests whom we had never met before. This new couple, probably each about 45-50 years old, was not married and I don't know how long they'd been dating. He likes ballroom dancing and she loves ballroom dancing. She was so matter of fact and certain about how she was the most sought after partner because she made every man she danced with feel as though he was having the best dance in the world. I was stunned by her supreme confidence, that wasn't even exactly arrogance because she wasn't being snotty about it-she conveyed this as her essence. And her boyfriend backed her up.

I need some of that essential confidence, and I wish it for each of you!