Tea Tray Corset
Walk sideways, tubercular and chic,
through
the parlour door, make an entrance, peacock
patterned wallpaper awaits, a yellow
caged canary, mahogany settees,
Spanish silks red as the blood drained
from your
face by the lace-clenched whalebone
that cinches
your waist to an hourglass as if you're
half
in the beast's maw. Looser the dress,
looser
the lady. A busk keeps your torso stiff
and posture rigid, projects a modest
temperament to the men who circle
in topcoats as you take your cake and
tea,
peckish and pale, frail as a baitfish
pierced
by the barb, dangled for the meat
eaters.
Adam Beardsworth is the author of No Place Like (Gaspereau, 2023) and the critical book Confessional Poetry in the Cold War: The Poetics of Doublespeak. He is the editor of Horseshoe Literary Magazine, and the founder/organizer of the Horseshoe Literary Festival. He teaches literature at Memorial University’s Grenfell Campus in Corner Brook, Newfoundland and Labrador.
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