… a poem by Anjum Alam
Would you not care to attend our dinner party
held on this next past Tuesday evening where
we will drink and dress as if we were told to
do so by our mothers who were told by theirs
that drinking and dressing would be their luck
in life
like when I invited you to the last dinner party
in that apartment and your absence was noted
so you have another invitation here and now
I am thrilled to see what you bring I hope it is
special because you declined last time so this
final
time will be brilliant because I have asked too
many people and one mademoiselle fashioned
herself a birdcage to see out of a window and
peck at her dinner partly since she couldn’t do
it any other way with the eggshells on the table?
Is it alright for the cutlery to be plastic because
the silver has been done before but the plastics
haven’t yet come in time for our dinner party so
come with me into town because it has been a
while since we spoke and I loved your ball that
wasted
the city which needed more money and though
it would be simpler for us girls to donate all the
money we spend on trying to raise more money
to buy the trappings and grace of a woman that
I have yet to meet through my painted face and
plastic
I will be the Deer Wife they wish to see with my
antlers and my black eyes which Guy will find
to be an excellent target in this game of caught
and kept and it will all serve as a backdrop of a
nice contrast with the white bodice of my dress?
When the lights dim I know you will place your
mask atop your head and dig into the meal we
have brought in for this fantasy needs more than
illusion and a sur-reality horror show to contend
but how else would you dine and celebrate the
coming of ages
or a meal filled with the harvest of my brained
body of heart and soul because even if madness
rests within me I know it will rest within you
because it was our mothers and their mothers
who knew drinking and dressing had its roamed
ways of truth
with their forgotten promises and contempt for
belief and promised timeliness so please stop by
I will make an exception just this once and since
you haven’t confirmed your meal option be sure
to circle quail or venison within the next week.