30 Brassieres by Donna Kaz

I find them stacked in piles,
a smooth cup nesting into its pair,
that pair sinking
into the one underneath.
Sweetly positioned rows of support
embellished with tiny satin bows and seed pearls;
adjustable straps,
hidden underwires.

Once crooked fingers
slipped each over
wrinkled shoulders,
slowly fastened hooks and eyes,
held your softness
in place.

Swept up and into a corrugated box,
I place the box in the trunk of your Lexus,
drive to the Goodwill on Manatee Avenue,
dump it out on top of a mound
of lime green stretch pants and bedazzled
white tank tops stained
with cocktail sauce, smelling
of spoiled milk.

At the last minute
I reach back to rescue one.

Back at your boxed up condo
I shove it into the outside
pocket of my carry-on, fly it north
where I stuff it
in the back of my own bureau drawer, a tangled mess
of twisted pantyhose, single socks, high cut briefs,
a handful of bras.

Every morning
I grope around in that drawer -




Donna Kaz's poems have been published in Lilith, Trivia, Western Press Books and Step Away Magazine (Pushcart Prize nomination 2013). She is the recipient of residency fellowships from Yaddo, Djerassi, Blue Mountain, Ucross, Wurlitzer and CAP21. Her nonfiction essays have appeared in The Dramatist, Ful Art magazine, Girl Drive Blog, Gender Across Borders and the Women’s Studies Quarterly. She resides in New York City where she is currently working on a memoir. Donna can be found on Twitter at @donnakaz.

Street art by This Is Awkward.
Photo by Adam Lawrence.

Stranger Cat is the duo of Cat Martino and Sven Britt. "Sirens" is the b-side of their first single and a precursor of what is to come on their debut album "In The Wilderness" coming this Spring via Joyful Noise Recordings.