by Regina Dilgen
They could only get away with this
In the earliest 1960s
The Host officiates
It’s all in fun, you know
This going through a woman’s purse
on this brand-new thing
It’s live TV
They pick a Lady
from the audience
She must—demurely-- hand it over
They will check to see
If she is carrying
the wrong things
there are rules, you know
The woman is as embarrassed as a child
As a child, watching closely,
I knew to be embarrassed also
Private women’s items might be in there
Shaming too to learn that
Any man could demand that you turn it over
Unsnap
At any time
What you are holding
You shouldn’t have
Any hidden secrets
Any stash
of anything
that is yours alone
And anything about you
can be revealed whenever they want
All your holdings are for the public
To regard
At any time
And so, my dear,
How well-coiffed and carefully dressed
You must be
Cinched waist and crinolines
White gloves, for the trip downtown
You might get smudged, you know
A Lady is allowed --required-- to carry certain items
A compact to powder her nose
A change purse
Animal crackers, for the kids, in wax paper
These are permitted
But the Host, with his big face, is smiling
and looking to uncover
Something she has done wrong
Always a laugh from the audience
at some thing
that found her out
A Hershey Bar
A Romance Novel
Blond Hair Coloring in a brown bottle
An extra pair of stockings, in case of a run
He chuckles, as if she is a bad girl
But what if there were other belongings in this woman’s bag?
What if she had other things about her
When The Host slips his hand in and feels?
What if he touches
Mother’s Little Helpers in a glass pill bottle
Vodka in a baby food jar
A diaphragm in its plastic shell
Betty Friedan’s book
Or the poetry, of Elizabeth Bishop, of Sylvia Plath
A pair of embroidery scissors, unsheathed
What if the host put his hand in, then?
They could only get away with this then,
The tip
of the 1960s.
***
Regina Dilgen, Ph.D., served as Professor of English and Department Chair at Palm Beach State College in Lake Worth, Florida. Her poetry has been published or is forthcoming in, Chameleon Chimera: An Anthology of Florida Poets, Blueline, Earth’s Daughters, Quartler(ly), The Dewdrop, Persimmon Tree, Passager, and Apollo’s Lute. She was a featured poet at a Performance Poets of the Palm Beaches reading. She lives in Delray Beach, Florida, where she writes and paints.