Photo by Alix Lambert, Artwork by Damon Locks,  Sketch by Jamie Hayes, Pattern & Sewing  by Chichi Tailors

 

Uniform Essay

by Annie Reese

 

the dress is made of soft cotton fabric, sun-faded and weathered from days upon days of house- and yard-work. a young woman is standing in the grass, holding a basket of laundry;

tired eyes and feet, freckled cheeks, tanned arms and legs, calloused hands with short fingernails.

she smells without smelling the country air, feels without feeling the hot sun on the top of her head, the cottonwood flowers brushing across her face,

she hears without hearing the wide-open, distant sounds of her rural landscape.

 

Bio Annie Reese is a musician living in Chicago’s Lincoln Square neighborhood. She performs and records under the moniker rock falls, which is also the name of her hometown, located in rural northwest Illinois. As a child, she dreamed of growing up to become an amalgam of Gladys Knight, Nichelle Nichols, and Karen Carpenter. She loves margaritas, warm weather, and coty wild musk.