"Red Dress" by Sarah Arvio
It's wrong to live wrong I was thinking this
and wringing my hands I wrung my hands
Wasn't it right to live right and to write
about the right life rather than living wrong
and writing about the wrong life Which is
righter which is wronger The thing is
if you have the wrong life you don't want
to tell thinking always that somehow you
will right it Righting and writing it's a kind
of redress a new dress I'll put on when I
rewrite my life I'll run out and get it now
while there's still time a red dress for joy
a red dress for redress and I'll dress you
down as I walk out the door You'll ring
and ring but I won't rush back I won't
write back You'll be right and I'll be
wronged and that's what I'll tell if I get
the time but not to you you won't be told
You can read my redress in the papers
I'll be out on the town in my red dress
"Red Dress" from CRY BACK MY SEA by Sarah Arvio. Copyright © 2021 by Sarah Arvio. Excerpted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC, New York. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Sarah Arvio's most recent books of poetry are Cry Back My Sea (2021), and night thoughts: 70 dream poems & notes from an analysis (2013), a hybrid of poetry, memoir and essay. She has also done a new translation of poems by Federico García Lorca, entitled Poet in Spain (2017). All out from Alfred A. Knopf.
