Whitney Vale

I have led a peripatetic life. Born in a Quonset hut on a Sea-Bee base in Port Hueneme, CA to a Naval father and stay-at-home Mom, in 1953, I have lived on both coasts and inter-states between. I grew up loving literature, my constant companions were and remain, books. I studied theatre arts in high school and as an undergraduate. My first MFA was in Acting, from Catholic University. I spent many years in Los Angeles pursuing an acting career, with many successful stage productions duly commemorated in a scrap book.  I also am a certified Kundalini Level One yoga teacher. Because I think all the world is a stage…that needs decorating, I also studied interior design. The author, often looking for employment, had a variety of resumes, what follows is a mash-up.

It's been a boogie-woogie life, a Navy brat and restless soul,

scooping ice cream for six months drifting from college friends,

friends who drifted to other geographies

 

I wrapped Christmas gifts at a family-owned store,

closing when the family drifted into death and indifference,

a Spaghetti Factory now, elegant booths, kids with buttered chins

 

I made sandwiches in Beverly Hills behind a glass partition

actors projecting their voices (dreams with avocado please)

me swooning making two sandwiches for Bond,

James Bond, his burr intoxicating

 

I sold glam cosmetics off Rodeo Drive,

worked in a legendary agent's office, fired for dreaming

 

assisting in a law office, I watched siblings sling

passive aggressive memos in meetings of Family Law

 

I sold vitamins to the weary and lotions to the hopeful

I booked films for a seedy movie theater

counted box office receipts, I data-entered, day- played on a soap

 

I worked for an antiques dealer, who was a little shifty

I worked at an answering service like Judy Holiday in that musical

but the only singing was the ringing in my ears,

 

I tracked down the obstetrician whose patient was in labor,

at his mistress' condo, phone number asterisked for emergency use only

 

I kept an octogenarian, lost in dementia, company

as she read the same newspaper article again and again,

her Chihuahuas pooping raisonettes on the expensive wall- to- wall

 

I worked as a fry chef at a fish dive in Louisville

waitressed a few places, spraining my wrist from food laden trays

I poured wine and cocktails, and a good draft

 

I sold a sofa forgetting dimensions were important,

it couldn't pivot in a stair well (PIVOT) customer returned.

I sold tchotchkes, I sold my self-respect

 

I fixed hems, ironed costumes, acted in some plays,

had a few standing O's

had a few lunches with tan-boothed agents

I acted out here and there

 

I taught meditation to snow birds

"Breathe, be in stillness, think

of your thoughts as white clouds"

 

as a stand-up comedienne,

I threw out a few jokes caught a few laughs

 

I temped, spiritual-counseled, ran lines with character actors

I jotted ideas for poems in the wings of run down theatres

did poetry readings in Silver Lake, wearing lingerie

 

Cancer crept into my womb, keeping quiet for years

 

once it spoke up, my womb was removed just a few months

before another cross-country move, and another MFA,

creative nonfiction, because you could not make my life up

 

unless, I shook it up with language

shaped the narrative

filling it with light

and the sermon of swallows.