Back Then Skirts Were Not Merely Skirts But Light Breezes Women Used to Wear And They Themselves Knew That Well

 

“Now how can I get myself dancers

and singers with skirts like breezes

and fans like the moving moon?”

Wu Zao (1799-1862), The Fake Image

 

It is auspicious and good for us

to be reminded by Wu Zao’s

venerable 19^th century voice

that skirts in bygone days

were not just skirts—

 

but breezes or zephyrs,

undulating, serpentine,

fluttering, and swirling

like the sinuous Wind

who set down Psyche

 

into Eros’ clasping arms

as told in Apuleius’ Tale

of the Golden Ass—the only

Roman novel to survive intact

the sinful burnings of old books.