An ordinary skirt of cotton and yesterdays
An ordinary skirt of cotton and yesterdays belongs to the following groups:
All Things Poetic, Artistic, Philosophical and Melbourne & VictoriaI’ve been picking at my hemline.
Everything has unravelled and it has changed things completely.
I last wore that skirt when I saw him beside the shop with soul written across its window. It was one of those coincidental meetings; on a wide and only blue sky day when the last person in the world you expect to meet turns up right in front of you.
Hello.
Again.
I was happy to see him, though my silly little heart beat itself into a rhythm that sang songs about if-only-you-knew and something-is-breaking.
He embraced me with just the right amount of nervous energy and although I didn’t need his cheeky enticing and enveloping smile that day, it changed things too.
I was born from change.
I think too much.
I feel too deeply.
I remember our last conversation. It was during a time of my life when I was lost and searching, found and running.
I remember him holding me and asking me to be still.
I was never good at being still then.
You can’t run like the wind and pause in the arms of someone who makes you feel the exact intricate and confronting emotions that you’ve been escaping from. Not whilst wearing a pretty ordinary skirt of cotton and yesterdays sliding up and over your knees, tracing your thighs with maybe.
Not whilst your head and your heart fights against each other in a duel of what is best for you.
I straightened my skirt and my heart and I forgot about my head and I did dumb things that one only ever does when it matters most. I said things that I regretted and I made myself into someone I wasn’t.
I became someone I despised.
I didn’t blame him for never speaking to me again.
I was an idiot.
It saddens me that he never got to hold that girl who could pause.
Me.
I know time and space and hemlines change but I wish that I had just sat with him for longer than I did.
I should’ve let him see the real me; the true girl he’d met on a night of perfect timing and dangling moon.
I despise that I was the second biggest mess I’ve ever been in my tangled life whilst in his presence.
He reminds me of the cotton in my skirt; the hemline with a failing thread. The one I tugged and pulled at until it completely unravelled everything. He is the thread that has weaved itself in and out of my life. I am the falling hem.
I’m going to throw the skirt in the bin.
It is yesterdays skirt.
© ryan
erich biemer
amazing elegy of missing…..
Lisa Jewell
Oh my, I bite my lip hard…...
I always thought it was just me that thought too much and felt too hard..
your metaphors are sublime, I want to take that skirt and fix the hemline if only I could sew…
palatable yearning.
xoxo
DanikaL
What a blissful piece … so full of those yesterdays we all dream and grasp at. Your writing is simply wonderful :)
Jessica Tremp
or burn it. x
Matt Penfold
Jeez Nic this left me feeling all washed out and flushed over and once again in awe of your brilliant writing, so much feeling… x
Rhinovangogh
My god PJ! I wait with bated breath for your newest. This one so reminds me why I think you should rankwith Shelly, Keats, Cummings and other greats. You rock. Your hemline is the most brilliant thing I have seen in a while. If you have not read Tom Robbins, do so. He is the only person who can make analogies and metaphors better than you.. But he does it with LSD I heard. Wow. You blow my mind. Cheers, J
lianne
“I despise that I was the second biggest mess I’ve ever been in my tangled life whilst in his presence.” Frankly, Nicole, you are just a brilliant writer – I can see this girl, see and feel her in myself even now and sense that hemline unraveling. I never had enough safety pins to hold it together either. Regret is just the worst thing, isn’t it? Especially if you’ve thrown the skirt in the bin because you couldn’t stop running long enough to mend it. An exceptionally profound metaphor and incredibly lovely images. Simply wonderful Nicole.
Teacup
Not whilst your head and your heart fights against each other in a duel of what is best for you., this whole piece just screamed out to me, every line, every metaphor speaks volumes… such an amazing way you have with words.. love it. xx
olivecrayon
This is me.
Oh god, this is completely me.
ArcadiaTempest
Your writing unfolds in me when I read…..so much of this I related to. Time to throw out what was never in fashion in our heart from the moment we put it on….it was never ever going to really show the true curves of who we are….beautiful poignant writing with your PJ magic…Wonderous :)) XX
butchart
way to many wonderful things in this to single out one or two….. this is for every one///woman or man who has allowed themselves to feel…..... brilliant…......b
olivecrayon
When I read it I seriously thought I must have written it. There’s no other explanation for how perfectly describes me. Even the way it’s written sounds like me. My friend agrees.
Thank you for helping me bring a little understanding of my mind into the world.
You’re very talented you know.
PJ Ryan replied
I’m really chuffed you can relate to it in such a way, that’s a great compliment to my writing, thank you … i’m enjoying your writing too :)