The Apostrophe Blog
I was fifty-four years old when I wrote this free-verse sorta/kinda sexy love poem, “My Bikini Goes to Goodwill” back in 2009. I remember the day I was cleaning out closets and drawers to fill a box I would later drop off at the Corvallis Goodwill store. That was when I found the forgotten and quite skimpy, two-piece bikini that I had successfully worn oh maybe fifteen years before. Looking at it now (2024) I am not sure I would have the chutzpah to write this one today. However, I do find it interesting that I started in the first-person and slyly switched to third once the poem introduces the photograph. Recording angel poet, observing what was once herself, and finding evidence of a completely different not-me person.
“My Bikini Goes to Goodwill” won fourth place in the Poet’s Choice category of the Oregon Poetry Association’s Fall 2009 contest. It was later published in their 2010 print anthology, Verseweavers.
My Bikini Goes to Goodwill
Into a vase that leaks, I stuffed
the scant two-piece last worn
on that beach in Maine—a journey
to enjoy last rites with a waning love.
He took a picture. I remember thinking,
Proof I once wore this.
Long gone,
the pale woman lowering her neck strap,
no tan lines to mar the perfect
hollows at the base of her neck.
Since, how the years pad
bony geometry, erase the scarps that used to be
her hips. Black hairs, wiry and purposeless, sprout
below her chin. Once, he plucked the ones
from her nipples with his teeth, spit them
into her abdomen’s concave. In the ceiling mirror,
I watched, still sylph, still center stage.
Interests: Reading, writing, not arithmetic. The art and craft of poetry. Photography. Vegetable and flower gardening especially heirloom bulbs and dahlias. Movies in real theatres. Theatre on real stages. Art in real galleries. Crossword puzzles and, of course, Wordle. Singer-songwriters like Aimee Mann and Patti Griffin. All kinds of music especially 1930s jazz. Venice, Italy! The Dude abides.
- Published but Uncollected: “My Bikini Goes to Goodwill” - June 17, 2025
- So Much Beauty… - May 27, 2025
- Blank Verse: Old-Fashioned Yet Modern - May 25, 2025
