The Magic Dress
Under the bed covers, my young one and I used to imagine
a dress that changed upon a wish
A gown of night sparkling with diamonds on dark velvet
a golden one with the shine of morning light, matching shoes and purses
Most had a heart-shaped bodice tightening before
the full skirt rustled and floated in circles over marble floors
Now I feel there is a larger mother granting us wishes everyday
with her wardrobe variations
I guess the dawn dress loses against the twilight one
pinks race violets and blues turn indigo
clouds line the cloak and the moon hangs like a medallion
as we rest in protected beauty
There’s the autumn dress in impossible shades one refuses
to step on later as if making a dancer’s mistake
It smells of mushrooms
Of the shabbier outfit in cities, I love the pockets of gardens
the worn aprons of parks, flowered
My favourite one is the jungle dress
Its mottled green fabric is rough in bark and soft in fern
Lichen adorned, dancing in tree-crown coordination as birds and silk
butterflies dangle around. Pity some parts are scorched
The white robe of mountains reveals curved bones and spills
swathes of tulle glaciers, shorter by the year
Ah and the sea dress! How it swings to and fro in grey or ultramarine,
how its white edges foam the skirts of sand to the music of salt
Coral jewels hide and recede in this, our time’s tide
I wonder if the molten core glowering in red and orange
will agree to slip her clothes on much further
or will discard us as a seamstress picks off the pins
in a dress that is done and finished
a dress that changed upon a wish
A gown of night sparkling with diamonds on dark velvet
a golden one with the shine of morning light, matching shoes and purses
Most had a heart-shaped bodice tightening before
the full skirt rustled and floated in circles over marble floors
Now I feel there is a larger mother granting us wishes everyday
with her wardrobe variations
I guess the dawn dress loses against the twilight one
pinks race violets and blues turn indigo
clouds line the cloak and the moon hangs like a medallion
as we rest in protected beauty
There’s the autumn dress in impossible shades one refuses
to step on later as if making a dancer’s mistake
It smells of mushrooms
Of the shabbier outfit in cities, I love the pockets of gardens
the worn aprons of parks, flowered
My favourite one is the jungle dress
Its mottled green fabric is rough in bark and soft in fern
Lichen adorned, dancing in tree-crown coordination as birds and silk
butterflies dangle around. Pity some parts are scorched
The white robe of mountains reveals curved bones and spills
swathes of tulle glaciers, shorter by the year
Ah and the sea dress! How it swings to and fro in grey or ultramarine,
how its white edges foam the skirts of sand to the music of salt
Coral jewels hide and recede in this, our time’s tide
I wonder if the molten core glowering in red and orange
will agree to slip her clothes on much further
or will discard us as a seamstress picks off the pins
in a dress that is done and finished
Published in Lothlorien Poetry.
Andrea Ferrari Kristeller is an Argentinean teacher, writer and who travels to the Atlantic rainforest in the north of her country every year. She intermingles her teaching practice with volunteer work translation for conservation programmes, and has participated in the building of the First Mbyá-Guaraní/Spanish- Spanish Mbyá Guaraní Dictionary and Pentatranslator (Rodas/Benitez, 2018) for the English section. She is currently learning the Mbya Guaraní language, and gives technical support to lessons given by a native Mbyá leader. Her poems and short stories have been published by several different American, Canadian and British magazines. Her nouvelle “The Land Without You” received an Honourable Mention at the Writers of the Future contest (2018), was published by the University of Misiones Press in October 2023, and chosen to represent the province of Misiones at the Buenos Aires Book Fair, 2024. More recently, her short story “The Drowned Man” won first place in the Horacio Quiroga international competition, in June 2024. Additionally, “The Land Without You and Other stories” was published on Amazon in June 2023, and its Spanish self-translated version, in September 2023