The Kimono

I want to believe
this garment once clothed
a Meiji Temple bride

with a smooth cherry
blossom face and bright tuna
sashimi lips. Sleeves

straining in the wind
coyly catch the eye
of the bleach blond youth

whose jackbooted feet
clomp a taiko beat downtown.
She looks like an angel

who lingered too long
in celestial gardens,
allowing gilded

flowers to put down
roots into her wings. But the
seams-they smell of human sweat.

Labeled "Bridal
Kimono from the Far East,"
lifeless and dull,

her trousseau now hangs.
Dead butterfly pinned
to a scientist's wall.

Kathryn Perelman will graduate from West Chester University of Pennsylvania in August of 2008. In her spare time, she travels as much as she can to such countries as China, Israel, and Italy. She is currently looking for ways to survive in the "real world' and to support her travel habit.