The Gown

It had been in the store window,
she saw it every day on her way to work,
her mind ablaze in imagining
a chance to wear its elegance
at the country club ball,
instead of being a servant there,
one more poverty victim
who lived dances in her head.

But tonight the magic
glowed like tinsel,
her heart felt as a feather
just drifting on breeze,
because for once the doors had opened
and she walked without any fear,
like she had seen in her times
when the party was on her pillow.
All around her the music and lights
bathed her senses
as they filled that enchanted chamber
with all the eyes watching
while she waltzed in her partner’s arms,
lost to the charms that had eluded
from days spent alone.

For the hour finally came
beyond her hopes,
once a hand found a princess
among the places never looked.

This eve, this twilight of sadness
summoned a wind unto her soul,
lifted by this fortune
only thought living in fairy tales,
for once her life had a kiss of euphoria
to sweep through the darkness.

Floor of that ballroom
suddenly covered in a blue mist,
perhaps tomorrow she would be among the ordinary,
however for this special spellbound schism
she would know a mystical second
so she could wrap herself in it as a bedspread.