A Paradelle for Dorothy Parker

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.)

Bio: 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