A Portrait Of The Actress...

I have seen her nude calendar work
and heard her kiss compared to Hitler's;
her death reported as disaster.

I sometimes courted the delusion
that I could have saved her from herself,
if only... Seduction from beyond

the grave: she would be over eighty
now, but stays as young as any
war hero and just as well recalled.

At the going down of cinema
lights - as candles gutter in the wind -
she stands forever with dress upraised.

Fans, romantics, Americans:
I came here not to praise Marilyn, but...