Fourth grade again

I'm reliving anxious days when I had to stand up and read my book review or short story for class. Only this time, I have to choose poetry for upcoming readings. I'm feeling a lot of the same things: the urge to stick with safe stuff, to try to make them laugh rather than put the serious stuff out there, and above all an obsession with what to wear.

As if I ever noticed how any poet reading poetry aloud was dressed.

Okay, I did notice the fellow with a safety pin through his nostril, and the white-haired woman with a little wispy chiffon scarf tied around her neck. But as I plan on neither of those fashion gambits, I'm left wondering more about colors than anything.

And of course -- how many Alzheimer's poems should I read versus "Ode to My Purse"?

But mostly -- what DOES one wear to read in, if one doesn't own cowboy boots or wispy scarves?