Julene Tripp Weaver: An Omen
Photo: Joanna C. Valente
Wedding Dress Barbed Wire Wrapped
—ekphrastic poem after Meghan E. Hartwig
Passing the store I eye the full-length
gown young girls long for, remember
my dream, the woman caged in chicken
wire, outfitted for lock down with sharp
points sticking in and out wrapping her
full length—neck to delicate pointed white
satin shoes that match. This dream tinged,
the bride is no virgin, she cannot move,
the night is slated for defeat, she must
say no to the suiter. The dream a wash
in grey-blue with no sky, her torso corseted,
a veil stuck in wire, the aisle she would
walk rubble cracked concrete, an omen
portending sacrifice, marriage a trap
to willingly avoid.
Julene Tripp Weaver is a psychotherapist and writer in Seattle. She has a chapbook and two full size poetry books. Her book, truth be bold—Serenading Life & Death in the Age of AIDS, was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award, and won the Bisexual Book Award. Her work is widely published in journals and anthologies, including: MookyChick, HIV Here & Now, Mad Swirl, Stonewall Legacy Anthology, and Day Without Art Special 30 Year Edition. www.julenetrippweaver@gmail.com
