Senior Prom Dress

Photo by Henry & Co. on Unsplash

When I was in high school, I found the absolute most perfect dress for my senior prom — it was a flapper-style dress, complete with long fringe. I loved it. And my mother immediately vetoed it because it was “too short.” Oh, how our parents think they can protect us from harm.

The fringe went down past my knees,

the skirt stopped a few inches above,

so in my mother's world the dress was inappropriate for prom.

I took my time in the dressing room --

taking the dress off and sliding it onto the hanger.

I held it to my body one more time and shimmied,

watching the flapper-girl fringe shake with delight.

We went to a dimmer, stiller place and found another dress --

it hardly moved when I did —

instead it stayed around my body like a traveling taffeta force field.

The dress invited stiffness, and so I was stiff.

Have some mercy for my mother

who just wanted to protect my body from harm --

she didn't know the stiffness of that dress would sink into my core

and stay there, keeping me from myself for decades.

She didn't know that after prom that dress

would be tossed on the floor of some girl's brother's bedroom

while I tried on the limits of "yes" and "no."