"I always knew I'd wear her dress..."

the night is far gone...
too soon

it seems as if it were all over, way too fast
his arrival at the door, my father's concern
my mother on the verge of giggling
like a girl....and he so handsome
with corsage in hand

my dress felt like fairy wings, dove's feathers and
butterfly kisses fluttering around me in
the colors of a faded heirloom rose
my mother wanted me to visit the shops and
try on newer dresses, ones that sparkled with jewels,

but i had always known what I would wear on
this magical night...i found it folded in an
old trunk with leather straps and brass fittings
her initials barely visible above the tarnished lock
but i was named after her, and so i knew the monogram
we shared...

she'd called it her honeymoon dress, part of
her trousseau, worn for dinners with the captain
and a baroness from Austria on their voyage
across the Atlantic.  She had always dreamed
of London and the Kew Gardens,
Westminster Abbey, and tea in a Cotswold
cottage...and he made her dream come true...
he always did...

I always knew I would wear it for my first
dance, my first kiss, my first date...I always knew