Dreamland for Keeps by Sarah Nichols
Porkbelly Press, 2018
The voice of Elizabeth Short rises from the pages of Dreamland for Keeps by Sarah Nichols. In this collection of found poems using text from The Black Dahlia, a novel by James Ellroy, Nichols has chosen words and phrases that give a voice to Elizabeth Short in verse that sheds light on the murkiness surrounding one of the most notorious murder cases in U.S. history and explains away some of the misconceptions that society imposed on the young woman found mutilated in a field in California in 1947.
Though Ellroy’s protagonist deals with fiercely male issues, the voice in Nichols’s found poems is decidedly female and forthright about her place in history. The chapbook opens with “What They Called Me,” a piece listing names Elizabeth Short would have welcomed and others that were assigned to her after her death. Her identity unknown, the police and the public needed labels to express their fear and loathing in attempts to create a distance between the dead woman and their own lives. In this introductory poem, Elizabeth lets us know what might have been, that “I only wanted / my name in / lights: // Nice girl.” The lines are brief and Nichols juxtaposes imposed labels such as “easy,” “tramp,” and “promiscuous” within Elizabeth’s own version of herself. The poem is a stunning opener to the chapbook and establishes the voice of a young woman finally given her say about her brutal murder.
In subsequent poems, Elizabeth speaks from this dreamland, proclaiming herself “the patron saint of dead women” where she hears everything and “Death is too loud.” She recounts a conversation with Cleopatra in “Dresses, Jewelry, Food” who tells her “People worship you / or forget.” In “The Woman Herself” she reveals her knowledge of what happened to her and the aftermath: “I’m a story / this city writes / over and over.” Each poem is a new revelation: the dead Elizabeth mourns her own death, imagines the killer’s voice on the phone, remembers her mother’s advice to “look soft and sweet.” She questions whether any of it matters and knows how people love the unsolved mystery that she has given them unwittingly.
Each poem in Dreamland for Keeps carries a recollection of a news report with a flash of information or a snippet of gossip from a conversation; everyone wanted to be in-the-know about what really happened to the Black Dahlia, and somehow to take yet another part of her to rename. The poems progress through possibilities and regrets of a short life and explore the emotions of a woman unable to speak for herself. In the final 3 poems, Elizabeth shares details of her death and how it feels to be in the dark for such a long time, knowing that “The living are greedy for theories.” Only she knows the truth of her life and death. Nichols’ found poetry collection shares Elizabeth’s dark reality with skillful accuracy and a meaningful connection to the never-ending mystery.
Anne Graue, the author of Fig Tree in Winter (Dancing Girl Press), has published poems in The Plath Poetry Project, The Westchester Review, The 5-2, New Verse News, Rivet Journal, and others. She is a contributing editor for the Saturday Poetry Series at Asitoughttobe.com.