Metrical Friday: Dressing My Daughters

Dressing My Daughters
By Mark Jarman

I’m not their mother, and tangle, then untangle
The whole cloth—on backwards, have to grab it
Round their necks. But they know how to pull
Arms in, a reflex of being dressed,
And also, a child’s faith. The mass of stuff
That makes the Sunday frocks collapses
In my hands and finds its shape, only because
They understand the drape of it—
These skinny keys to intricate locks.
The buttons are a problem
For a surgeon. How would she connect
These bony valves and stubborn eyelets?
The filmy dress revolves in my blind fingers.
The slots work one by one.
And when they’re put together,
Not like puppets or those doll-saints
That bring tears to true believers,
But living children, somebody’s real daughters,
They do become more real.
They say, ‘Stop it!’ and ‘Give it back!’
And ‘I don’t want to!’ They’ll kiss
A doll’s hard features, whispering,
‘I’m sorry.’ I know just why my mother
Used to worry. Your clothes don’t keep
You close—it’s nakedness.
Clad in my boots and holster,
I would roam with my six-gun buddies.
We dealt fake death to one another,
Fell and rolled in filth and rose,
Grimy with wounds, then headed home.
But Sunday…what was that tired explanation
Given for wearing clothes that
Scratched and shone and weighed like a slow hour?
That we should shine—in gratitude.
So, I give that explanation, undressing them,
And wait for the result.
After a day like Sunday, such a long one,
When they lie down, half-dead,
To be undone, they won’t help me.
They cry, ‘It’s not my fault.’

One Response

  1. Fergus
    Fergus at | | Reply

    My daughters’ clothes are not made for my big, clumsy, men’s hands. Tiny button shaped like flowers, hearts or butterflies may look cute but I could hardly fasten them on a doll with the help of tweezers let alone on a one year old who’s struggling, octopus-like, to get back to her toybox. And I won’t even get into the difficulty I find in working out tights (that’s panty-hoes). How on earth do you get a little girl, spining around like Taz to put both legs in at once?

    Give me boots and a holster any day.

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