10/18/09

to Marilyn Monroe

   I was the girl of the Golden West
   Born to gold-diggers and assembly-line workers
   Studs and narcissists
   President Monroe and Clark Gable
   A frigid fireball in a tight sweater 
   The Joan of Arc of cheesecake. 


   I was just mmmmm in the high school yearbook
   Not A for Ability or B for Beauty
   But M for mmmmm.

   The high school dropout
   After Tippy was shot by the neighbor on Hawthorne Street
   And I sang "Jesus Loves Me, This I Know," at Sunday school
   And RKO flashed in burning neon repetition
   Through the orphanage windows.


   I was the Third Blonde
   Behind Betty Grable and June Haver
   The confessin' glamour doll
   Who became blonde-blonde, blonder than blonde
   Honey, platinum, silver, white, golden, ash
   But never dirty again. 


   I was the First Lady of Sex
   A sex monster, broken sex
   Freshly scrubbed sex, a sexless nympho
   A tender mouse of sex
   A slice of apple pie and a scoop of vanilla ice cream
   I wanted to be Marie Antoinette and Jezebel.


   I was The Girl upstairs
   A dumb and sexy broad
   In a slightly soiled blue baby-doll nightie
   Eating lamb chops and cottage cheese
   The sauntering soap opera on Nembutal
   I was ten feet under water
   A wall of thick cotton, a sloth
   My face or hair or me.


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