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Nina Corwin USA
Irregulars
It starts with Inspector 29, her nervous
tics
and squinting eyes gone bad in the
strip-search
for the wayward thread or almost
invisible discoloration.
Or should I say, it starts with the
apparel
on their hopeful parade from production
line
to seller’s rack. But there’s always
somebody judging:
saying yay or nay, fast track or going
nowhere fast,
fine department store or strip mall
cheap boutique.
As for me, you’ll know me by the labels
on the clothes I wear.
Gathering up the also-rans, the factory
seconds
that stumbled under scrutiny, I who was
always the last
to be chosen for blacktop kickball
teams, I celebrate
irregulars! Those mail-order pantyhose
marked down
for their slightly wavering seams, the
snags that only
Inspector 29 can see, the skirt unevenly
pieced together
by the anonymous sweat shop sewing
machine operator
who must’ve had a really rough night. I
welcome
their cut-rate selves into my home,
sisters in imperfection,
standard-bearers and tainted saints of
human error.
Once my breasts were a perfectly matched
set.
But life comes along with its caustic
shadows
on mammograms, its ambiguous cysts.
Life with its imperfect science, the
winking
of uncertain stars. Like those forced
choices
where vanity meets cancer in a face-off
for a good
night’s sleep and next day when you wake
up,
you find your right breast sporting a
jagged new smile,
sagging a bit smaller than the left and
thankful for it.
After awhile, you hardly notice.
There are times I see Inspector 29 in my
dreams,
smug as the angel of cleanliness buzzing
about
the right hand of God. She plucks me
easily
out of a line-up of department store
wannabes
with my collection of scars, my uneven
teeth and
too big smile, my piles of papers
cluttering every
available surface. She drops me into a
large vat
along with all the other misfits where
we are slapped
with Irregular labels: Inspected by 29.
Loaded
into boxcars and destined for bargain
basements.
We are assured, if merchandise doesn’t
move
within thirty days, further markdowns
will be taken.
(C) 2011 CW Books, Cincinnati,Ohio. |
