Wild Alice by Alarie Tennille (ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER Series)

Wild Alice
by Alarie Tennille

Black and white photos
can’t hide the colorful life
you lived before me. Crimson
lips whispering smoke,
eyes laughing in ways
they’ve forgotten. Night
clubs, dance floors, “When
They Begin the Beguine.”
Dress rehearsals for a show
that didn’t go on.

Three fiancés,
just one trip to the altar—
that should have been
a sign you weren’t cut
out for a supporting role.
But the backdrop
of war crashed,
leaving a world craving
domestic comedy.

You could still command
center stage: holding placards
in parades, dancing hula
at conventions, promising
to tell the whole truth
in courtroom dramas.
But red taffeta and shimmy
dresses faded to the back
of your closet.

Encore! Encore!
Weekdays at 5:00 p.m.
I held a ticket to your late
matinee. You swept through
the door, catching me up
in a waltz or a jitterbug.
“Marry a man who can
dance,” you’d say. Then,
swirling into the kitchen,
just us girls, you’d take me

behind the scenes, telling me
the stories that made me
wish I’d been born sooner.

©2008 First published in Remembering Faces, chapbook anthology from Palettes and Quills.

IMAGE: WAVES recruiting poster (c. 1942).

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: I was named for my mother, Alice Marie, the names of her grandmothers blended to make her nickname Alarie. Unfortunately, she died at age 59 in 1981, my father 18 months later. In 1982, I moved to Kansas City where I didn’t yet have friends, so, naturally, I talked about Mama and Daddy a lot. Writer friends began telling me I needed to write a book about them, but instead, they became the first subjects of my poetry writing. I share Mama’s love of cooking, storytelling, reading, dancing, manners, and inherited much of my Feminist streak from her. She was a Wave in WWII, and a career woman who worked her way up from clerk typist/bookkeeper to Office Manager, then Personnel Manager. Unfortunately, two extroverts could not make an extrovert of me. Fortunately, My crusade against stage fright (almost 20 years ago) has finally made me a fan of microphones.

AUTHOR’S PHOTO CAPTION: Wild Alice the Wave—Fortunately for me and my brother, there was a housing shortage in Washington, D.C., during WWII, so my mother happened to lodge in the home of Daddy’s first cousin and family. He returned to the States, rather a miracle for a Master Sgt. in the 82nd Airborne. They met in October 1945, both returned to their hometowns, then got married in February 1946.

EDITOR’S NOTE: WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) was the women’s branch of the United States Naval Reserve during World War II. It was established on July 21, 1942, by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on July 30. This authorized the U.S. Navy to accept women into the Naval Reserve as commissioned officers and at the enlisted level, effective for the duration of the war plus six months. The purpose of the law was to release officers and men for sea duty and replace them with women in shore establishments. (Source: Wikipedia.)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Alarie Tennille was a pioneer coed at the University of Virginia, where she earned her degree in English, Phi Beta Kappa key, and black belt in Feminism. She received the first editor’s choice Fantastic Ekphrastic Award from The Ekphrastic Review, and in 2022, her latest book, Three A.M. at the Museum, was named Director’s Pick for the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art gift shop. Alarie serves on the Emeritus Board of The Writers Place In Kansas City, Missouri, and hosts the Rose Garden Reading Series in Loose Park. In 2023, her time was consumed in launching a new version of her website. Please visit her at alariepoet.com. Her blogs include book reviews, writing advice, even “Overcome Stage Fright: Parts 1 & 2.”