Vanessa Valliere

Written While Listening to the Andrew Bird Video of the Song That Sharon Wrote

by Vanessa Valliere

I took a picture of myself on my wedding day in the future. I held the camera at arms length and laughed at someone in the distance. I served the salad myself, tiny red berries on white plates. I told stories to the children before they hopped on the dance floor, their purple taffeta sticking out and then drifting up – they patted it down with their pudgy fingers and collapsed in giggles. I ate the cake with my hands and left the frosting on my nose. The music played the whole time. I didn't think about the past – which is now – but touched the linens on the table and folded the napkin when I was finished with my roasted chicken. I don't know if my mother was there. Or anyone else I knew. Only that there were people. I sang a song on the way to the bathroom and my voice echoed down a long hallway. I was tipsy and my cheeks were rosy. The dance floor smelled like baking cakes and babies heads. I spun and spun and couldn't hear anything but the music. People were smiling and everything was moving slowly. My dress floated out and I looked down at the flowers on the trim. It was the future of now but I didn't know it. Only the turning around and around.

-Vanessa Valliere, http://onetimesometime.wordpress.com/