ICONS NAILED ON THE WALL

ICONS NAILED ON THE WALL

(For Marilyn Monroe and James Dean)

 

Lights and shadows on the wall,

These are the icons of his youth.
How so like them to coyly disturb
A silent room, nailed on a wall.
She, reclined with a come-on grin,
He, pensive, slouched as the lost-boy
Rebel without a cause, stares east
At an Eden long lost to the giants
Who have taken over the garden
Where he lies buried with a Porsche,
His coffin of choice, a fleeting star
Gone quickly like a haunting mirage.
Could she have written that lyric
For him, this recondite Sappho,
Who was thought as a mere wiggle
Of a hip and a pucker of the lips,
Not a wicked siren in a white house
Where nothing was pure that side
Of the universe, that side of loneliness.
Bright images on a wall, still shadows.
 

---Albert B. Casuga

04-08-14