Lily Ann Rose
January 23, 2022

by Paula R. Hilton

 
You would have been 89 today. As a teen,
you danced your way into risqué burlesque.
Shook your breasts performing in Scollay Square.
Wanted to be a star. Said, “It’s all I lived for.”
 
Underage, censored onstage. Arrested, jailed
for lewd, lascivious conduct. Memory made 
you laugh, roll your eyes. “Hauled away for 
shaking my butt in a club of questionable morals.” 
 
“My butt was covered with 50 yards of ruffles.
No way anybody could see anything. I was proud 
of those panties. Sheer, very sheer. Could make 
ruffles on my rear shake like lightening bugs in a jar.”
 
Three days in jail cell made you pull the curtain on 
Lily Ann Rose. You became a writer, wife, mother, 
grandmother with burlesque in your blood. “Banned 
in Boston, but I’ll sure as hell be a star in heaven.”
 

* * * * *

Paula R. Hilton explores the immediacy of memory and how our most important relationships define us. Her work has been nominated for Best Small Fictions and has appeared in The Sunlight Press, Writing In A Woman’s Voice, Feminine Collective, Dear Damsels, The Tulane Review, and elsewhere. Her novel, Little Miss Chaos, was selected as a Best Indie Teen Read by Kirkus, and her first poetry collection, At Any Given Second, received a Kirkus star. She holds an MFA from the University of New Orleans. Read more of her work at paularhilton.com