The Iceberg Marlene
She who’s never been anywhere
without the whole shebang:
kettle drums, entourage, cloak of foam.
Watch her now: a white fortress advancing
to flirt with Arctic mountains,
unbeatable as Lola-Lola.
A gorgeous slow-motion river,
her melted cast-offs priceless.
Lean in for the close-up.
Sure, she was lying: she’s mere rubble,
devastated like the moon,
her face breaking into a mosaic,
suffocating beneath strata of make-up.
She can’t steer herself,
has stared at the sky so long
she thinks she might be a cloud.
She doesn’t even know
what’s going on in her own body:
lakes swelling inside her,
cruel tunnels opening, collapsing,
cracks burrowing to plunge
her into psychosis.
Or has she fooled you again?
It’s hard to take Marlene seriously
because she’s Hollywood
in its enormity, a glassy puzzle of bit-parts,
all waiting for the applause which says:
You, yes, you dear, are everything.
without the whole shebang:
kettle drums, entourage, cloak of foam.
Watch her now: a white fortress advancing
to flirt with Arctic mountains,
unbeatable as Lola-Lola.
A gorgeous slow-motion river,
her melted cast-offs priceless.
Lean in for the close-up.
Sure, she was lying: she’s mere rubble,
devastated like the moon,
her face breaking into a mosaic,
suffocating beneath strata of make-up.
She can’t steer herself,
has stared at the sky so long
she thinks she might be a cloud.
She doesn’t even know
what’s going on in her own body:
lakes swelling inside her,
cruel tunnels opening, collapsing,
cracks burrowing to plunge
her into psychosis.
Or has she fooled you again?
It’s hard to take Marlene seriously
because she’s Hollywood
in its enormity, a glassy puzzle of bit-parts,
all waiting for the applause which says:
You, yes, you dear, are everything.
Page(s) 16
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- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
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- Dream Catcher
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- Fabric
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- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
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- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
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- Orbis
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- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
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- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The