Читать книгу Dear Prudence - David Trinidad - Страница 22

“THE CHAIR THAT SHE SAT UPON IS UP FOR AUCTION.”

She sat atop the back of this chair

two weeks before she died,

her final photo shoot in Brentwood

at her L-shaped, Spanish Colonial home,

the only one she owned by herself:

“I live alone and I hate it.”

Fired from Fox, her last

completed film would be The Misfits,

unappreciated at the time,

a performance given on the edge

of the abyss, much of it out of focus.

And somehow posthumous,

as when Peter Lawford introduced her

as “the late Marilyn Monroe.”

Her white hair made her look like a ghost.

Life photographer Allan Grant chose this chair and placed it below

the window for the light it offered.

He asked her to select casual clothes.

She wore a black V-neck sweater,

capri slacks, spike heels.

At the end of the session, she reportedly said,

“Please don’t make me a joke.”

She could still be alive

(if she’d gotten off pills),

the users and Svengalis long behind her.

The Italian-style carved chair

has had three owners since Marilyn’s death.

The green velvet upholstery bears a little tear

where her heel poked through.

As Monroe sat on it and posed,

she caused a small crack in the wood.

Winning bid: $28,000.00