Reviewed by Meg Burns
In their poem “Triple Sonnet for Nomi Malone,” Dorothy Chan explores the controversial protagonist of the 1995 film Showgirls and its Las Vegas setting. Chan draws parallels between the film and their own life, specifically their own memories tied to the Nevada city. They also utilize various pop culture references to suggest feelings of loneliness and a struggle to find one’s place.
The poem, published in Vol. 53, no. 1 of American Poetry Review, strings three stanzas of sonnets together into a run-on, stream-of-consciousness style study of the character and the speaker’s shared loneliness. At a glance, the structure of this poem seems daunting. It doesn’t follow the traditional rhyme scheme or meter of a sonnet, except for the fourteen lines in each stanza. The line and stanza breaks occur at seemingly random times as well. Yet, a hint as to why this piece reads the way it does lies in the author’s note at the very beginning: “in the Center of the Universe.” Chan’s capitalization refers to a reference to Project Runway later in the poem. The show was filmed in New York City, and this inclusion alludes to the place they are writing from. In contrast, Nomi Malone, the subject of the poem, lives and works in Las Vegas.
Chan goes into the differences between the two cities by comparing their use in films. While New York seems to be a common setting for movies of various genres, Las Vegas, despite its glitz and glamor, is not a popular location for filming. The speaker questions this, asking “…How many/great love stories take place in Sin City or/in those ’50s sci-fi movies where would/the aliens park their saucer.” Chan furthers this idea by referencing that the monster Godzilla attacked New York because it was a more populous and important city, leaving Vegas further down on the “food chain of Kaiju conquests.”
The stark contrast that Chan creates between the cities leads back to the theme of loneliness. In order to understand this further, it’s important to note that in Showgirls, Nomi Malone is a runaway criminal who is trying to redeem herself by getting a job as a stage performer. She’s ruthless in her pursuit and does many questionable things, such as pushing her rival (as Chan puts it) “down the fucking stairs.” Despite praising this action as ambition, they immediately note that Nomi’s name can be read as a hidden message: either “Know me? I’m alone,” or “No, me? I’m alone.” This acts as a suggestion that loneliness was Nomi’s true motivation in the film, and acts as the volta towards Chan’s self-reflection.
The final stanza begins with the speaker reminiscing on a past lover they met in Las Vegas. They note that he was “Born in the Year of the Cock,” which turns the Chinese zodiac sign, rooster, into an innuendo signaling that they enjoyed his company. (This also is a fitting allusion to make, as Nomi Malone is a sex worker for part of Showgirls.) Their musing over this man ends abruptly, in the middle of a line. They say “He ended up calling every night/though I wish—” and don’t even pause before moving into a different memory and leaving the potential partner behind. This time, they recall walking through shops on the strip with their father as he gave them the advice, “Please don’t end up alone.” Another memory overtakes this one, and another, and another, separated only by dashes in the text. The reminiscing quickly turns into desperation, longing, what Chan calls “a time machine.” The reflections of both Nomi Malone as a character and the speaker’s history with Las Vegas give this poem an overall sad nostalgia to it, with a rambling sentence structure to match its chaotic journey through the past.
Meg Burns is a junior music major at Lebanon Valley College. On campus she can often be found acting with Wig and Buckle, singing, or hyper-focusing on whatever she’s writing at the moment. She enjoys art, cosplay, Pokémon, tabletop roleplaying games, and a nice cup of hot chocolate in the evening.