Tania Rochelle


VALET PARKING AT THE SALVATION ARMY

In a dream, I hand my car keys to a pretty
blond boy, a young GI Joe in desert fatigues
who helps me get the baby stroller out
so I don't have to stand on my head to unfold it
like a map of the universe, like the Century
Deluxe I once hurled across the mall parking lot
because two hands were never enough.

Inside the store, racks of angora sweaters, like new:
sweet pastels with rhinestones and seed pearls
I'll wear, in this dream's daydream, to the Star Community Bar,
where I'll be the best swing dancer,
and an aisle of records, all compilations:
Dance Fever, Love Songs for Candlelit Evenings.

Then Josie's beside me, asking,
Why do you have so many dresses in your closest with the price tags
     still on?
They dangle like suicides
beside John's starched shirts.
It takes awhile for the answer to come,
like the middle name of my eighth-grade boyfriend,
or ketchup through a paper towel,
and it wakes me: Every time he promises me
a romantic evening, I buy a new dress.




Tania Rochelle
Date of Birth: March 21, 1963
Day Job: Writing instructor, Portfolio Center, Atlanta; Private workshops.
Location: Marietta, Georgia, Land o’ the Strip Mall
Email: TRoche4606@aol.com
Publications: Iris, New York Quarterly, Snake Nation Review, Mediphors, The Drunken Boat, Three Candles, Thunder Sandwich, The Blue Moon Review, Stirring, etc.
Anthologies: Split Verse, edited by Meg Campbell and William Duke; We Used To Be Wives, edited by Jane Butkin Roth
Awards: Editor’s Choice Award, Snake Nation Review







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