I Want a Pretty Dress That Fits Me, Please,
a dress that hugs my Mommy waist,
that forgives my fully fattened thighs,
that won’t ride up my too-big butt,
a dress I can slip on with grace and ease
summer nights with my fella on dates,
a dress that appreciates my size
and shape, that lets me step and strut
like a model down the runway of life,
my two legs as long as they are strong
to take me where I need to go,
a dress that lets the world know
the body should be sung like a song,
and a pretty dress sings along.
Angela Alaimo O’Donnell, PhD, is a professor, poet, scholar, and writer at Fordham University in New York City, and serves as Associate Director of Fordham’s Curran Center for American Catholic Studies. Her publications include two chapbooks and nine full-length collections of poems. Her book Holy Land (2022) won the Paraclete Press Poetry Prize. In addition, O’Donnell has published a memoir about caring for her dying mother, Mortal Blessings: A Sacramental Farewell; a book of hours based on the practical theology of Flannery O’Connor, The Province of Joy; and a biography, Flannery O’Connor: Fiction Fired by Faith. Her ground-breaking critical book on Flannery O’Connor, Radical Ambivalence: Race in Flannery O’Connor, was published by Fordham University Press in 2020. O’Donnell’s ninth book of poems, Dear Dante, was published in Spring 2024.