poetry

Feminist Fashion Police Citizen’s Arrest

Feminist Fashion Police Citizen’s Arrest

as the long escalator plunges down
through the glittery shopping-obsessed
Oil State airport/mall
I can’t help but read
the trim young woman’s back
in front of me over and over
spelled out in a block
of black and white sequins:
THINK LESS

trapped together for this moment
the stages of grief flash by
while both our hearts keep sinking lower

  1. DENIAL
    maybe she doesn’t speak English
    sees the text the way I see a Chinese tattoo
    or the Arabic all around now
    no more than an interesting pattern
    of swoops and stops
    utterly meaningless
    maybe she’s no idea
    what she’s broadcasting
  2. ANGER
    you are undermining everything
    everyone’s done
    dimming the future for everyone
    idiot!
  3. BARGAINING
    maybe they’re mermaid sequins
    stroke her back
    and maybe the words transform, inspire
    say love more
    do more
    feel more

    maybe I’d agree
  4. DEPRESSION
    it’s not just her to blame
    it’s the designer
    the manufacturer
    the marketing team
    the model who wore it
    the store owner who sold it
    her parents
    her friends
    the men it was meant for
    WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?
    oh, yeah. right. they weren’t.
  5. ACCEPTANCE
    o young woman
    on the DXB escalator
    who I am so tempted to think less of
    who I literally look down on
    you are yet another manifestation
    of divine intervention
    the universe exercising its will
    calling me to stay vigilant
    reminding me
    how much could still be lost
    thank you for putting your provocative self
    in my path
    igniting my thinking
    in the midst of an otherwise mindless moment
    clutching the handrail
    descending into materialism’s hell