Saturday, June 2, 2007

"A Birthday Poem for Norma Jean"

OK. This is a first version. I'm going to tinker with it a bit. Feel free to donate suggestions.


BIRTHDAY POEM FOR NORMA JEAN

If alive today, would you have kept
up with the Jones, Cher and Dolly style?
Would you thrive on the days when men
thought about you while fucking their wives,
when boys came in socks while star-
ing at your poster? Would you brag
about banging celebrity brothers
over a few sour apple martinis?

Or

Would you be living life
hoping you are wonderful,
hoping everyone noticed the wonderful,
wanting to leave the memories
of loveless foster homes behind,
the days of spraying glue,
and stick to the hearts
of those who bring you into their homes
with a click of the remote,
proving everyone prefers a blonde.

5 comments:

Kate Evans said...

I like the "stick to their hearts" line especially.

Have you ever read Sharon Olds' poem about MM?

http://cai.ucdavis.edu/gender/oldspoem.html

Dustin Brookshire said...

Kate, I have read it. I did an exercise with my group-- I pulled lines from poems and had the group use some of lines as first lines of their own poems. I used a line from that Olds's poem.

If you're interested, I blogged about the exercise here:
http://dbrookshire.blogspot.com/2007/03/monthly-poetry-group.html

Everyone enjoyed the exercise.

Montgomery Maxton said...

i like it

Anonymous said...

Hi Dustin--Lisa Allender here...
I'm so happy you posted about Marilyn!
Clever poem, young man. Marilyn would be tickled, I think. And touched.

Dustin Brookshire said...

MM, I'm glad you like it-- thanks for reading.

Lisa-- Thanks for reading and commenting on my poetry. Please give me a call because I need to talk with you about something ASAP!