The Significance of a Dress

Emma Lee

• Publisher: Arachne Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781909208353
• eBook ISBN: 9781909208988
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: European Poetry
• Index: Literature

Poems informed by and immersed in politics. Everything has significance beyond the surface. Beautiful, hair-raising words and form. Emma Lee's The Significance of a Dress moves from Refugee camps in northern Iraq via beaches in Greece and Northern France to dark streets in London and elsewhere, and asks questions about where to find hope, and how to overcome adversity. 'A wedding is a party, a welcome, a sign of hope. The dresses sparkle with sun-reflected diamanté but the gravel paths of the camp leave the hems stained.'

The Doctor from Aleppo’s Book Keeping

Injuries need fixing	No matter whom they belong to.
They are not anti- or pro-regime.	People feel protective of their tribe.
One side blacklisted me.	it was dangerous to support the other side.
I had to flee.	My family needed safety.
The boat sank.	Water feels safer than land right now.
Eleven hours my one focus	Not drowning is an art, a drive
to keep my head above water.	I was rescued to try again.
I had to try again.	I failed and failed again.
I built a network of connections.	People trust doctors.
Fifteen contacts find clients.	I pay gangs to run the boats.
I could buy boats.	I’ve sent eight thousand people
I bribe the Turkish police.	No sinking or drownings so far.
Turkey to Italy or Greece	costs four thousand five hundred euros.
Onward travel to Germany	plus two thousand euros or
onward travel to Scandinavia	plus four thousand euros.
Destination isn’t my concern.	I didn’t want to charge.
Bribes, boats, costs mount up.	I need to feed my own family.
The UN could do this.	Let people travel legally.
If I stay in Syria, I’ll be killed.	If I travel, I’ve a 50% chance of survival.
I send my son to safety.	I dream of making a home again.

First published in UK 2020 by Arachne Press Limited

100 Grierson Road, London SE23 1NX

www.arachnepress.com

© Emma Lee 2020

ISBNs:

Print: 978-1-909208-83-4

ePub: 978-1-909208-98-8

mobi: 978-1-909208-99-5

The moral rights of the author has been asserted.

All content is copyright the author.

All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior written consent in any form or binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Except for short passages for review purposes no part of this publicat...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• I Saw Life Jackets Left on the Beach
• Stories from The Jungle
• Bridal Dresses in Beirut
• Dismantling The Jungle
• Outside the Photograph
• The Significance of a Dress
• A Boy’s Text Message in Headlines
• I’m Here, Wherever that is
• Uniforms Contain People
• Diary from Holloway Jail February 1907
• Reptiles in Texas
• His Mother was Told to Leave Him Out to Die
• How Do you Rehearse for This?
• Saving Grace
• Standing on Ice
• The Staircase of Knives
• The Quilt with 598 Squares
• He Did/She Did
• Today’s Lesson Misses the Target
• How Rapunzel Ends
• Gone Midnight and I Needed to Press Reset
• Wishing Not to be Stalled
• The Landmarks Change When You Walk Home
• Icon in Red (#C0362C)
• Put a Spell on Those February Blues
• When Your Name’s Not Smith
• The Sea Remembers
• Where No one Operates the Lights
• How a Dress Lost its Sparkle
• An Elephant in Atlantic City
• The Doctor from Aleppo’s Book Keeping
• Copyright