Wedding Dress

I don’t want to put my wedding

dress away. I look at its silk

embroidered bodice, and see

the wet green lawn, our guests,

my daughter in the bedroom mirror,

weaving the last flower into my hair.

I look at my cream-colored dress

as a window, still left open,

though time cannot pass through.

Those few hours –– the getting ready,

ceremony in the woods, reception

on the lawn –– is all it will ever have.

Imagine, “always” and “forever”

in our closet hanging.

“Wedding Dress” is from Talking Underwater (Wind Publications, 2007).