davidfcooper

FASHION CITY

Have you ever dressed up in those
tawdry clothes? I’m asking because
tho I wear tight low jeans, ultra
sexy VS, find mini skirts superb
for running after a train, but I’ve
never been in one of those stores
with fur g strings and lace panties
with the crotch cut out. How com-
fortable can they be? Or clean? I
know garter belts are supposed to
be sexy, especially with silk hose
and nothing else. Even a fake
cigarette in a black rhinestone
holder might add to the look. But
today I’m seeing the fish net and
push up black bra, the little apron
with nothing covering behind
not as vulgar but something else:
my friend’s husband is not well.
She’s crying, even at tap and ballet.
What you and even I might see
as sleazy, she is squeezing into,
pulling on with her fingers shaking
out of love. This isn’t about yelping
Fuck you with the finger, but more
like a horse soothing somebody
scared, a mother cradling a feverish
infant. She is in what sounds to
me like something I’d have trouble
wriggling in or out of out of love,
she hooks and smoothes to make him,
after the diagnosis, forget what
could be ahead

--Lyn Lifshin