Marilyn & Sylvia by Cate Murray, PhD

“ Last night, in a dream Marilyn Monroe

appeared to me as a fairy godmother. She gave me an excellent manicure, and we talked about men.” Sylvia Plath — Journal, 1959

>

Aphrodite and Erudite,

two sides of the same coin,

twins cast in different caste systems.

Once inside they feel unwanted

as a box of kittens,

always in a quest for face value.

One gets whistles, the other scholarships,

but when the curtain closes, they’re alone.

>

They bleach their hair baby-blonde,

paint their lips with red smiles,

and go out in search of Daddy.

Several scrapbooks later, one finds a President

with Rhett Butler rhetoric;

the other charms an anthropologist

with the voice of Thor.

>

When the curtain closes, they’re alone,

sleepless nights in empty rooms -

Marilyn with her telephone and downers,

Sylvia with her pen and paper, brandy and Beethoven.

The goddesses called from the labyrinth,

but the echoes came too late.