FOREVER FABULOUS: On hips, colour, and forever-fabulous friendships
All dressed up and unable to go!
Hello,
This poem waves shyly at Jenny Joseph’s wonderful “Warning” (When I am an old woman I shall wear purple) and at Maya Angelou’s “Phenomenal Woman” whose “sway of my hips” always makes me want to raise an eyebrow and wink at someone mischievously. It is also a love letter to my friend Sabina who remains forever fabulous, forever dancing on heavenly tabletops in scandalous boots. Sabina left us a few years ago, but I miss her every single day, so I was delighted when she came to sit next to me this morning, insisting on playing a big part of this poem.
In other news, I'm back in Switzerland, and have loads of medical appointments lined up as my IBD is not improving with my current immunosuppressant; I had one of my worst flares ever last week and had to resort to taking cortisone again for a couple of days to be stable enough to fly home. I'm happy to be back here, even if a little freedom to go places would be a welcome bonus! Soon! Very soon...
With love and gratitude,
Francesca x
FOREVER FABULOUS
If I were elderly
I would not just wear purple,
But hot pink and turquoise and silver
And buttercup yellow,
In velvets and cashmeres and silks
And the softest cottons.
I would flounce down the high street
On my way to drinks with my friend Sabina –
She in orange or scarlet, or maybe, today, an exquisite emerald green.
Today, elderly me would wear turquoise and silver silk-velvet,
And sling a fringed suede bag over one shoulder,
Relishing how it bounces with the sway of my hips
As I flounce down the high street
to meet my dear friend
Sabina,
Forever fabulous.
Today –
Holy smoke! –
She’s in a scandalous scarlet number
With over-the-knee black boots with assassin heels.
Sabina forever has it going on.
She greets me with her mischievous
“Hello Madam”
Beige-busting hug
And we order cosmopolitans,
Pester the DJ
For Abba, Blondie,
And a whole lot of David Guetta and Ricky Martin.
Of course, we have no time
For the scandalized biddies in beige
Zealously guarding their handbags,
While Sabina,
Forever her fabulous self,
Let’s loose on a tabletop
In her scandalous boots
With assassin heels.
But wait a minute…
Am I elderly?
Today I delight in a wardrobe bursting with colour and texture,
A swoon of hues.
I still flounce with relish
Whenever my hips are up for flouncing.
Sabina only greets me
With a mischievous “Hello Madam”
In dreams,
For she left this world far too early
And now lets loose on heavenly tabletops
In an endless parade of little numbers,
Each one more scandalous than the last.
Elderly, moi? Perhaps!
But I have Ricky in my hips,
Guetta in my veins,
And Sabina forever laughing,
Forever scandalous,
Forever fabulous,
Just out of sight,
Right by my side.
Sabina ❤️🦋❤️