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Sport 39: 2011

Engageantes = detachable sleeves

page 301

Engageantes = detachable sleeves

Why put such work by rush or candlelight
into tucks and pleats and slits that open like flowers
when the important shoulders inside fall to dust?

Through thin wavering crooked panes comes
a light divided into little parcels
while the sleeves lie on a bench like mutton

or a long white swan for dressing.
Over the sleeves the dressmakers are bending
working inside them, preparing the battlements

and suspending, on the outside, cascading jewels and ribbons
so the wearer is protected from indifference or too close
an approach. (They forbid intimacy, these engageantes

though admiration is their sense of breathing.)
Inside the shoulders stiffen a little, then relax.
It is dual crowns they are wearing, that will come off

like heads upon a spike, by a bridge or tower.
The sleeves will be plucked (by thinnest threads
after all this effort) and then stored flat.