Cast, Credited and Not by Kelly R. Samuels

Party Girl #1 is undoubtedly more important than
Party Girl #2, right? I mean…
with that #1 and all. We hear the chanting. We see the signs.
Party Girl #3 may make it onto the podium, but
she’s on the left with only a bronze. Poor Party Girl #3, sad sack.

L.A. Girl #1 and L.A. Girl #2—
just how much hostility is there? Recall those freeway shootings.
You never know; they could be the best of friends. Double
your fun.

All these girls, all these girls…

How much does an adjective matter?
Patio Girl feels slighted by Pretty Girl on Patio, although the latter is (uncredited).
(One has to spend a fair amount of time scrolling to come across the uncredited, even if she is pretty.)
Pretty Girl.
Pretty Girl at Chateau, again (uncredited).
Pretty Girl at Loud Table, again (uncredited).
It’s a bland adjective, like ‘cute,’ even if you are at a chateau.
So commonplace; pretty girls grow on trees.
Better to be modified by two:
Young Wasted Girl, Suite Party Girl.
To be the Party Girl (uncredited) may be the lowest of the low, although
no numerical distinction may be even worse:
Vampire Model.
Vampire Model.
Vampire Model.
Telegatto Dancer.
Telegatto Dancer.
Telegatto Dancer.
They all start to look the same, at least on paper.

Blonde in Mercedes doesn’t need an adjective.
She’s good with her prepositional phrase because of her noun and all
its connotations.
Although not as good as Naked Blonde with Sailor Cap.
Consider for a moment:
Adjective. Noun with a hint of adjective. Prepositional phrase containing a noun masquerading
as an adjective.
Pretty weighty. Pretty complex. For a blonde.

We could vie for those temporary genderless roles:
Ice Skating Instructor, Chinese Journalist, Airline Rep, Rebecca’s Publicist, Foreign Press.
They have jobs beyond partying, beyond standing around all day looking pretty.

We could be the Burger Waitress. Not ‘table server’ but ‘waitress.’
That one line could get us noticed, that way we held the tray.

Kelly R. Samuels diligently works as an adjunct English instructor. Her work has most recently appeared in PoetsArtists’ JuJuBes and is forthcoming in Off the Coast.

Other things you might want to read:

Two poems by Kelly Morse Two poems by Devin Kelly This Anticipated Goodbye, Swarming by Lucia LoTempio Two poems by Danielle Jones-Pruett