When I was eighteen I wanted a black dress
Along with chandelier earrings
Dangling to my shoulders
It was my entrance to adulthood that my
First black dress or two were cotton
And the color was mandatory for
My first job as sales clerk in a department
Store where I was assigned to the
Toy department during the Christmas
Season selling mechanical toys, board games
Bicycles, and other objects hoped to
Be lusted after by pre-teenage boys
I never wore earrings then but soon acquired
A third dress for working girl wardrobe
Made of wool and saved for Thursday
When the day began at noon and stopped at
Nine o’clock with frequent special sales
To lure parents to buy unneeded gifts
Poorly made, doomed to self-destruct and add
Violent displacement to the hearts and
Minds to already intolerant vacuous youth.
I worked until a few days before the twenty-fifth
When I was laid off and reemployed again
For the spring and summer where I sold
Women’s blouses, then hosiery and finally men’s
Sportswear cheap shirts, jackets sweaters
And I earned a commission plus salary.
Those black dresses were what I wanted until I had
Them, saw them take me to this palace of
Unnecessary artifacts for unsophisticates like me.
