In Christine Murray’s “Sequins,” a dress is being remade. Red thread secures sequins over gold, and a soft funeral gown is turned into something stiffer and brighter. The sequins—metal, pearl, mother-of-pearl, peacock—call attention to a scar, yet they also make it shift and catch the light. Quickly the dress becomes battle armour, a mail-coat, an armoured dress; light glances off its metal frills, and the fabric seems almost musical, untouched by dust. The repeated command “sequin it” works as both sewing instruction and ritual. To sequin is to hide the wound, cover it, tack it down stitch by stitch with red thread. The speaker’s tone feels determined and protective, as if grief is being deliberately transformed into glinting armour. The mood is intimate, incantatory, and a little fierce: sorrow remains underneath, but it is being covered and made to shine.
Sequins — Summary
red on gold under gold the red thread will tie in the sequin the dress will transform from the funerary gown of soft cloth
metal pearl mother-of-pearl the peacock sequins emphasise the scar : where it was cradled in soft cloth it shifts with light it now shifts with light
a battle armour with shiny metal frilling a mail-coat an armoured dress
the metal frill catches and disperses light from embonpoint to point of candlelight it is no dust no accretion of dust occurs in the music of fabric flame does not show yellow in blue blue glass
sequin it : it hides the wound sequin it: with the red thread sequin it : the loosed skein tack it in stitch on stitch and sequin it cover it