“WHY WOULD YOU NAME A ROOM BLANCHE DEVEREAUX?”
(Selections)
Brice Peterson

Editor's Note: The following three poems are previously unpublished pieces from a lengthy series, “Why Would You Name A Room Blanche Devereaux?”, each of which is written in conversation with—and exclusively during the duration of—a single episode of Golden Girls. These three are the first three episodes of Season Two. For more in the series, click here.

 

26: THE END OF THE CURSE

 

My life is over, the everglades are dying,

and it's the curse I don't have. Nothing?

Nothing? It was like being at the planetarium,

and without so much as an intermission.

To me, the undying fertility of what a floozy

you were! And really those Ivy League

schools are so snotty (just one fly for Blanche;

she's in there). This is the change. Better?

Better? Puce: it looks kind of lavender to me,

and I had drapes that color once, like how

only yesterday I was Magnolia Queen

and the mayor of an imaginary city.