< 1
Decades after her death, Dorothy gets a headstone.
Born during a hurricane, she was writer, poet, satirist.
Dorothy (writer, poet, satirist) was born during a
hurricane. Decades after her death, she gets a headstone
at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx,
Her epitaph: Leave for her a red young rose.
In the Bronx, at Woodlawn Cemetery,
leave for her a red young rose, her epitaph.
A hurricane threatened while gin was sipped from flasks,
as Parker’s very pretty dust finally came to rest.
While gin was sipped from flasks, Parker’s very pretty
dust finally came to rest as a hurricane threatened.
Decades after her death, writer, poet, satirist Dorothy
gets a headstone: Leave for her a red young rose,
her epitaph. While gin was sipped from flasks,
as a hurricane threatened at Woodlawn Cemetery
in the Bronx (she was born during a hurricane),
Parker’s very pretty dust finally came to rest.
(A paradelle is a modern form invented by Poet Laureate Billy
Collins. It is adapted here to eliminate some repetition.)
Alison Jennings is a Seattle-based poet who taught in public schools before returning to poetry. She has had a mini-chapbook and over 100 poems published in numerous journals—including Cathexis Northwest Press, Mslexia, Poetic Sun, Red Door, and Society of Classical Poets—and been a semi-finalist in several contests. https://sites.google.com/view/airandfirepoet/home