Dialect of a Skirt

The young girl wanted a new voice. After all, people got

new things every day. A new hip, a new nose, a new set

of suspenders. She adored the consonants that landed

like wooden shoes. She loved the type of L-sounds

that made a mouth drool from the back of the tongue

to the front. She practiced her new voice into seashells,

tin cans, caves. She gave her first performance quietly,

into the ear of her sleeping dog. She could tell by his snorting

that his dreams were of fat tree trunks and black, truffle-filled

soil. Later, she drove to the local gas station and used her new

voice to ask for a pack of cigarettes. She wasn’t wearing a bra,

but the attendant didn’t notice. He was too busy  listening

to the way sound seemed to drip out of her mouth

as she said the word,  Camel .

MARGINALIA

I’ve been turning and turning and turning all my life, looking for this poem.

ABOUT ERICA MIRIAM FABRI

Erica Miriam Fabri is the author of  Dialect of a Skirt  (Hanging Loose Press, 2009). She teaches at Pace University, the School of Visual Arts, Baruch College, and Hunter College of the City University of New York. ( Source )

Read more poems by  Erica Miriam Fabri  • Find books by this poet on  Amazon  •  Bookshop  • Follow on  Instagram  •  Website  •  Or view my library

ENDNOTES

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ON THIS DAY

On This Day

Moral Narcissism by Barton Smock

2026

The Patience of Ordinary Things by Pat Schneider

2013

Dialect of a Skirt by Erica Miriam Fabri

2011