Poor Cow: A 20th Century Icon

First came the Dangerous Years Norma Jeane was the child of a schizophrenic Remembered her mother trying To smother her in her cot In and out of orphanages, foster homes Sexually abused since 8 years old, raped at 11 This dizzy blond had an IQ of 168 Foster families sent her to the movies Alone, a psychiatrist's dream to unpick One of the ladies of the chorus She read Camus and Hemingway Whitman, James Joyce and Freud She laid herself out in a playboy nudie spread sheet Bums from the asphalt jungle Lusted and drooled over her There was always the suggestion of monkey business Did gentlemen prefer blondes? Too true… many crossing the river of no return To woo her…a drum roll of glistening stars Sinatra, Brando, the Kennedys, plural, Yves Montand, Jerry Lewis, Howard Hughes Two Chaplins, et al et al…. There's No Business Like Show Business The Seven Year Itch blew up her skirt in the subway Brought down her marriage Some Like It Hot… Three husbands, Dougherty, Di Maggio, Miller Norma Jeane sang "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" At President J. F. Kennedy's birthday bash Wearing a beige, skin-tight dress picked out in rhinestones, Looked like a nude sirenrising above the cake One of life's Misfits Something had to give Found dead in bed, rattling with pills, At 36…her home, bugged by the FB1, the CIA She was buried in her Emilio Puce dress In a Cadillac casket, solid bronze And lined with champagne silk Jo DiMaggio sent red roses To crypt no 24 for twenty years At the Corridor of Memories Hugh Hefner lies beside her, next along Hers was never your average home town story Addiction, depression, anxiety, sex in spades Which is why Britney Spears owns a pair of her jeans Mariah Carey owns her piano The blond bombshell's films grossed 200 million dollars Post mortem, plays, operas, songs have blasted her Into super stardom Groucho Marx called her"Mae West, Theda Bara, Bo Peep All rolled into one". She was as famous as hot dogs, apple pie, baseball According to Photo play. Her name sold Max Factor, Chanel, Mercedes-Benz, and Absolut Vodka Think of her eating a chocolate soufflé at Romanoff's Washed down by a rare champagne Not drowning in tears and pills Film goddess with feet of clay One of life's victims, tragedy writ large