Challenging Poetry

big white bags

new clothes to us
came home in big white bags
Mama emptied carefully
into each separate dresser.
new to us was as good as new—
lace and frills and exotic fabrics
Mama would never bring herself
to buy.

children will wear anything.
when pattern and color
became a concern, and grown-up
jobs meant grown-up clothes,
we learned to shop and spend.

still, when my sisters gather,
we bring big white bags
from the out grown or out shrunk,
or the colors that don’t quite fit
one sister’s wardrobe but might
another’s, and choose
new clothes to us.

line count: 20