Swizzle Stick

When I Wore

April 4 — List poem w/repetition — write a poem that lists things, using some (not necessarily constant) repetition and variation of an initial phrase (Examples: When I was six…, Remember that time…*, Layers of…., etc.)



when I wore this three-hundred-dollar t-shirt
a waiter slopped cold coffee down my front

but when I wore this ol’ thing nondescript
nothing was spilled & I stayed clean & blank

when I wore this itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny
I ended blister-red with, in relief, a white bikini

when I wore this brand new leopard-print pillbox hat
my head felt like something, under something like that

when I wore my heart upon my sleeve for daws to peck at,
nobody came nobody saw but the crows all cawed

when I wore silks in sleek repose
& the liquification of my clothes

when I wore a long dress, where was the serene length?
A line distinguishes it. A line just distinguishes it.

when I wore this enormous scarlet letter down my back
people tried to post me, or to pick me like a rose

when I wore this pastel-blue velvet 70s vintage safari suit
everybody thought I was a man

when I wore this anaphora
the critics questioned my lack of chiasmas

when I wore this large black wig with the silver streak
I answered to Morticia & drank neat tequila

when I wore this t-shirt with the big-eyed cat-face motif
a neighbour's dog went to leap at my throat

when I wore on your very last nerve
I got quiet & serious & put on a pot of tea

when I wore a sudden smile over early coffee
with my crumpled matinee hair
& you smiled too




Note: thanks to Bob Dylan, William Shakespeare, Robert Herrick, Gertrude Stein for the odd borrowed / stolen phrase