Where's Vegas When You Need It?

It's in Nevada--right where it's been since 1905.
Sandborn & glitterraised, it peaks the Mojave

about two thousand miles from home. I've heard
you can get married on a pirate ship, that there are

almost as many churches as poker chips. Which one
will hear my confession--that I've been dreaming of Cher

impersonators who pluck Swarovskis from their armpits
to dazzle my throat--& not laugh? Or, worse,

understand? There is no secret to its neon, just
coincidence--its atomic number the same

as my month and year of marriage.
As for the future, no mystery: Saturday will follow Friday,

rum will follow cards. I've never been to Vegas,
& I can't hold on to what is merely a maybe.

T.A. Noonan is the author of two hybrid-genre collections, The Bone Folders and Petticoat Government, as well as the chapbooks Darjeeling and Balm. Her work has appeared in Verse Daily, Ninth Letter, RHINO, Phoebe, Harpur Palate, and many others. "The Trouble with Correspondence," her essay on the intersections of witchcraft and body image, was named a Notable Essay in Best American Essays 2011. Currently, she lives on Florida's Treasure Coast with her husband and serves as both the Associate Editor of Sundress Publications and Managing Editor of Flaming Giblet Press.

TPQ3