AGE-DEFYING, 1976
by Amy Pence
The showgirls untime time, faces mirrored: duplicating, re-duplicating—
they’re set loose and iconic: mid-seventies, the Lido de Paris,
unclothed but for G-strings, Marie Antoinette beehives
frolicking in a set-up of Versailles or writhing
behind bars in the mass fluorescent jail scene, blinking. No doubt
the Stardust had the best signage: its incremental diamonds
zipping up into my panties, in the vulva of the young girl
lonely. Backstage, their eyes were wedged
open by giant hideous lashes. The moles and snagged body stockings garish.
Their mouths laughed, clutching cigarettes. They brought kittens,
casseroles. My step-father called them the girls—though some—
the ones who sang—were way past their prime. Love
had its way, crept in to the Lido themes: fiery, jealous tiki dances
a languorous etude with a wig-bedecked couple on a swing.
Archival & quaint those towering, melon-breasted beauties—
so sexless, they generate remorse, implode their dark stars
when the Stardust goes down, when what we build goes down, soft
in the roof of my mouth.
Prose poem
Title bolded in all capital letters, like a neon sign.
Confessional in 1st person
Four 4-line stanzas, then one 2 line stanza.
Form is balanced but incremental, like the diamonds.
Syntax has a disjointed tone, line endings are mostly feminine.
Line enjambment and run-on stanzas
Long sentences bookend short, choppy ones.
Polarized phrase: “untimed time”
Metaphoric phrase: “incremental diamonds zipping up into my panties.”
No end-rhyme or internal rhyme
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