THE ONLY DRESS YOU’LL EVER NEED

Turn to sideview, it takes your breath away. It swings.
That the narrative your internal critic weaves begins

to fade is no illusion. This dress drips blue deep notes.
Wrinkles time. Pour your body like hot wax into its

merciful stitches. This shift thistles any suitcase, loads
a pack like thunder, takes to task the naysayers, owns it.

Icicle shards from every cliff, this is not your mama’s frock,
solid and pocketful. It shocks. Slips like the membrane you

were born in, nurtures your most internal desires. Full on
juicy, this gown bleeds pomegranate, cherry and plum.

Where sun and ocean horizon, this skintight caress of a
dress throws light-coins on the water at your feet. Go on,

sonnet with random abandon! Queen in it! This robe rocks
atomic, pulses glory in the most quantum way.

*

Ronda Piszk Broatch is the author of Chaos Theory for Beginners (MoonPath Press, 2023), finalist for the Sally Albiso Prize, and Lake of Fallen Constellations, (MoonPath Press). She is the recipient of an Artist Trust GAP Grant. Ronda’s journal publications include Greensboro Review, Blackbird, Sycamore Review, Missouri Review, Palette Poetry, Moon City Review, and NPR News / KUOW’s All Things Considered. She is a graduate student working toward her MFA at Pacific Lutheran University’s Rainier Writing Workshop.