It's Still Life

On a Slip of Dark

She reminded me
of a little bird,
perched on black and white.
A feminine sea, inconsistent
as sunshine, and she was
stucco pale on a shriek of dark.
That unbalancing dark — follows
you around; prey in the background.

Like a stage. Like a shadowy prop.
And it would stutter, shudder
the air, and make her dark
diamond-laughter sing.
Smoulder. Catch fire.
We watched. Nobody knew
how to extinguish a diamond.

And dark was her familiar, filled
her mirror like true religion.
Black and white, never as dark
as black on white, but
there’s no colour
when you walk with death.

For Miz Quickly’s “Marilyn“.

Inspired by a letter written by Marilyn Monroe about her stay in a psychiatric clinic. In it, she says that her stay at Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic in New York felt like being “in some kind of prison for a crime I hadn’t committed.” Ms. Monroe also details how she slammed a chair into glass, then used a piece of the broken glass to threaten to hurt herself if she wasn’t released. But, she adds: “I’m an actress and would never intentionally mark or mar myself. I’m just that vain.”