Here is the image for the October Invite to Write:
Ceremonial clothing is a way of assuming power or disappearing into an expression of power or to disappear into the performance of function or power. According to the American Folk Art Museum's description of the above object: "During the performance of Odd Fellows rituals, members donned costumes to portray characters in the story and make the lessons come alive for initiates." The uniform can make corpulent the abstract form of an organization or fraternity. This mixing of the abstract and physical can be liberating and creative or dangerous and restricting. Where do you see uniforms both explicitly and subtly in our culture? What do you see communicated in ceremonial clothing? What do you wear that feels like a uniform to you? What is a uniform for you?
Image: Independent Order of Odd Fellows Robe, Velvet, Cotton, and Metal, 1875-1925.
Post your poems here in the forum or email them to info@aras.org . We look forward to reading them! Thank you!
Animosity
Secret Lover
1998
I swallowed you whole
And you slid down my throat
Settling in my heart and devouring
My life that became a throne
For your unseen shadow.
You posed
In a uniform
Of light blue shirt
That stretched over shoulders
And chest like a second skin.
My heart belonged to you,
A hungry lover with an appetite
For power and control.
You were ice blue eyes
And soft-spoken reason
That judged,
Condemned and executed
In the flat monotone
Of no restraint
On power.
I didn’t know
You were sitting in my heart
Like a worm eating
What was left of my life.
I see you now and the hell
You come from.
We’re battling for my life,
But I’m a scrappy street fighter.
Destroy me, and you destroy yourself.
We have to come to terms.
Don’t you think?