Much is blamed on women. How we wear
our beauty, for example: boldly,
irresponsibly, flash and flaunt, or not at all:
mouse dropping drab. It’s 1948,
girls are singing, wearing white, a chorus
from the upper school of Saint-Some-Woman’s-Name.
Christmastime in 1948. They’re singing
in the overheated day room of the V.A. Hospital
in Richmond, wearing white, before an audience
of men all freshly bathed and listening.
Panes are fogged. Heat swirls and eddies.
Disinfectant, taffeta, L’air du Temps, cold sweat.
It’s close, the war is over, radiators hiss
and girls are singing in the overheated dayroom
wearing white, the wounds aren’t new,
it’s Christmastime. A girl—so beautiful,
this girl— and here, my father’s voice
begins to crack— so beautiful, this girl in white
at the end of a row of girls wearing white,
leans toward the man who sits before her,
panes are fogged, and asks what song he’d like to hear.
He doesn’t answer right away.
She waits and smiles.
1948, L’air du Temps, radiator hiss.
He answers, roughly, “Silent Night.”
The girls begin to sing and as they do, the man
who had not spoken in four years begins to weep,
the other men begin to weep, my father
at the age of 92 begins to weep— it’s Christmastime
in 1948 and girls are singing, wearing white.
from Tips for Domestic Travel
Bedminster-based Hayden Saunier is the author of five poetry collections and her work has been awarded the Rattle Poetry Prize, Pablo Neruda Prize, and a Pushcart Prize. Her work has appeared widely in journals and featured on The Writers Almanac, Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, and Pennsylvania Public Radio. She is the founder/director of No River Twice, an interactive, audience-driven poetry performance. www.haydensaunier.com
Poet’s Corner is curated by Bucks County Poet Laureate Tom Mallouk and supported by a grant to the Bucks County Herald Foundation made possible by Marv and Dee Ann Woodall.
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