October 27
The front step of the Wee Kirk o’the Heather Wedding Chapel (“World Famous Since 1940”)
Wedding Chapels, 5 of 5
And, to wind things up with the wedding chapels, here’s a little something I wrote after the first time I saw brides walking though casinos:
Nevada Impurities
The brides of Las Vegas – pretending not to notice
the notice they attract – hoist up the fronts
of hoop-skirted dresses and plow through clots
of slot machine grannies, pulling grooms
and bridesmaids in their wake.
Only the dry cleaner back home,
charge with returning the gown
to its virginal state, will see how
satin lace chiffon hems
are embroidered with casino carpet grime.
He’ll shrug as he fits giant dresses
into acid-free boxes,
betting the knowledge will stop with him.
Las Vegas, Nevada
photographed 5.29.2009
Posted on October 27, 2012, in Photography and tagged 365 photo project, black and white photography, haiku, las vegas, las vegas nevada, las vegas wedding chapels, laurie jameson, melinda green harvey, photo a day, photography, texas, wee kirk o' the heather wedding chapel. Bookmark the permalink. 3 Comments.
One Day | One Image 
Do you think that card fell out of the groom’s sleeve on the way in to the chapel? Perhaps by accident, or maybe he dropped it in sudden realisation that he should not take a cheating heart (or even spade) in to such a solemn event?
Your poem is very evocative – we don’t need to see that embroidered hem in one of your photos (though it would make a good picture). The only thing that you may have got a bit wrong is the acid-free part. Is permanence and unspoiled preservation part of this scene? But getting me to think about this is of course the sign that you did get it right 🙂
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Maybe the card fell from the bride’s garter…
Thanks for your comments on the poem – I’d sort of forgotten about it, but our conversation earlier this week reminded me about it.
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A dropped playing card
who knows the significance?
Not the newly weds.
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