The Wardrobe's Best Dressed: "What Hollywood Taught Me" by Alison Taverna

“Dear Readers”

Outside snow or rain falls.
It’s hard to tell from here.
I place the shades low to hide the light—
helps me keep up appearances. I make
Justin’s mouth move like marmalade. Oh,
what comes from the sky may or may not melt
before it hits the ground. These are my words,
though I’ve pretended they’re not.
I’d rather avoid than be comfortable.
Justin said that, not me. Come, fall
past my window and let’s see
if any of this is real.

This selection comes from the poetry chapbook What Hollywood Taught Me, available from Seven Kitchens Press. Order your copy here.

Alison Taverna holds an MFA in poetry and a certificate in publishing from Chatham University where her thesis, If We Keep These Bodies, won the Best Thesis in Poetry award. She is currently the Associate Editor at Autumn House Press and the poetry instructor at Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA) High School. Her first chapbook, What Hollywood Taught Me won the 2015 Robin Becker Prize from Seven Kitchens Press.
Visit Alison here.

Beth Couture‘s work can be found in a number of journals and anthologies, including Gargoyle, Drunken Boat, The Southeast Review, Ragazine, and Thirty Under Thirty from Starcherone Books. Her novella, Women Born with Fur, was published by Jaded Ibis Press in 2014 as part of its Blue Bustard Novellas series. She graduates with her Master’s in Social Work at Bryn Mawr College in May, and she lives in West Philly with her husband and five cats.