by coincidence

i've found myself somehow

admiting too

that i can see the irony

in the beauty of

this white slip

fluttering now like

a dove

trying to escape

the inevitable fate

that someday

our white slips

will fade to gray

in the laundry bins

and the sadness

in the fact that

no matter how much

bleach

we try to use,

that color will never come back

to us,

we china dolls

in tight black dresses,

teetering on the rickety shelf

of modern-day

adulthood.