Electric Dress

Electric Dress:Atsuko Tanaka, Electrical Dress, 1956 B. K. Fischer (bio) Stare before it shorts out, trips and fizzesdim, before the clattery glass can cross the room and cool—a belle, a bride in bulbs with a linguini train, an incandescent teapotrat-trap clown-coat grapevine ghost. Make it up to me! Filaments, a fitting end, a fragile frock of udders, christmascolored bodies of balloon dachshunds, bound to pop, but no—they're brittle, not one would bounce. For the face,a wire cage, for the wrists, two clamps, an o-ring to rope it up. Turn it on, take it off, take it over,turn it up—let me help you with that switch. [End Page 245] Surely you are not surprisedsuch brightness would be so heavy? Surely you are not too hot and shy to smile? Careful now.Let me help you with that switch. [End Page 246] B. K. Fischer B. K. Fischer is the author of St. Rage's Vault (The Word Works, 2013; 2012 Washington Prize), Mutiny Gallery (Truman State University Press, 2011; 2011 T. S. Eliot Prize), and Museum Mediations. She is poetry editor at Boston Review. Copyright © 2013 B. K. Fischer

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