The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed: The Pink I Must Have Worn by Scarlett Peterson

---

In the beginning there is always a birth—

I  was born into grief 
small body at the door 
where two should have stood 
should have been walking 
by then. At the opening I was 
pink and small, firstborn’s 
replacement, born knowing 
grief as heirloom, as overarching 
theme. This is how I came 
into being. I was two meeting 
as one, two cherubs 
a Greek chorus heard by 
no one but me, little guides 
the ghosts I imagined passing 
through the walls of our 
haunted apartments. 
Little static I recognized 
as voices little sisters, older,  
never aging, always at the other end 
of the play phone, whispering 
what I could and could not hear.

---