for Marilyn

Tousled platinum blonde locks cover  
heavy-lidded bedroom blue eyes  
her coveted naked body  
laid silent  
still  
dead.  
   
How much of her demise  
was unfortunate self destruction,  
the time bomb ticking from    
the day she was born.    
How much of the slow fuse smouldering  
was mistaken for sex appeal?  
how many of her cries for help  
were mistaken for pleasure?  
Her booze and drug induced sex life,  
the frantic climbing over her partner,  
digging in her manicured nails,  
digging for a way out,  
then falling back into her past  
until her breathy voice was silenced  
by nembutal and broken love.  
   
There was always politics  
Marylin would never be a Jackie  
She had a pedigree of being the    
white trash bastard child  
borne to poverty and dysfunction,  
riddled in nightmares and inopportune groping.  
How many father figure fingers  
rode her curves from shoulder to knee?  
How many jealous wives    
found the back of their hands were most effective  
in keeping the teenage slut docile,    
in protecting their fragile orders?  
   
I still look at pictures  
of the sexiest woman that ever lived  
and think to myself  
how much easier her life would have been  
if she were just born plain and ugly.