Junior Prom

Remember your first ball gown floating in the light
of the high school gymnasium, lit up for the night
with stars bound up in streamers  and even paper trees
wound around the trellises, leaves swaying in the breeze.

Bare shoulders on each teenage girl, stiff collars on each date
as they enter the prom’s runway with their chosen mate.
Rhinestone crowns fixed firmly to each mounded lock,
with pins that soon go flying to the strains of “Jailhouse Rock.”

Young spirits cool and groovy–feeling they might freak
decades before their need to present themselves as chic.
That one night of fantasy of all nights in the year––
slow music your permission to draw each other near.

For the Sunday Whirl, the words are: remember gown ball runway floating light mound crown bare chic stars spirit

This really is a photo of my junior prom. I’m the one in the shocking red dress and red heels! Looks like everyone else chose pastels and white shoes.