In dead celebrities, <br />you could almost see death hanging <br />there in their eyes, <br />suspended like a waiting <br />birthday surprise <br /> <br />I see it shrouded now <br />in photos, <br />films that once stared <br />straight through me: <br />how they missed the beat of their death <br />by seconds; <br />but I see it, retroactively. <br /> <br />Marilyn's livid white <br />of death mysterious <br />stricken down in her prime <br />so that there was no time; <br />no time for makeup, <br />or mine of expressions <br />to take hard edges off <br />foreshadowed signs. <br /> <br />Subcutaneous death, <br />awaiting eyelid's curtains <br />to flutter open <br />one last time- <br />whirring cameras <br />they won’t hear again- <br /> <br />Get as close as you want to now, <br />you know the flash won't bother them.<br /><br />Patti Masterman<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/celebrity-death/
