The Bras
Barbara Westwood Diehl
The bras are up to something. They’re weighing
their options. They’re trying other roles on for
size. The bras have had it with being typecast.
The D cups are panning for gold in California.
The C cups twirl tassels and pole dance.
The bullet bras fire laser beams that can
vaporize planets. The satin bras are divas
with a three-octave range and secrets.
On Saturdays, the bras sport Disney
cartoons. The bras think
all of this is hilarious.
The bras are going in for synchronized
swimming. They’re surfing. They’re itsy-bitsy
yellow polka-dot bikinis in disguise. The bras
want to run a marathon. The bras want
sponsors. The bras want to fly from a flagpole
until you pledge allegiance. The bras are out
of the closet. The bras have come unclasped.
The bras have lost their underwires. The bras
want a standing ovation.
About the author
Barbara Westwood Diehl is senior editor of The Baltimore Review. Her fiction and poetry appear in a variety of journals, including Quiddity, Potomac Review (Best of the 50), SmokeLong Quarterly, Gargoyle, Superstition Review, Thrush Poetry Journal, Atticus Review, The MacGuffin, The Shore, The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, Raleigh Review, Ponder, Fractured Lit, South Florida Poetry Journal, Poetry South, Painted Bride Quarterly, Five South, Allium, Split Rock Review, Blink-Ink, Switch, Unbroken, Bacopa Review, and Free State Review.
Barbara lives a couple of blocks north of Baltimore City and lived in Baltimore pretty much all her life.