Stern Shoots Marilyn (Poem)

Stern Shoots Marilyn

The bad boys all think
        they know her type,

want to be sure she gets
        their number. Who can

blame them? Every shot
        of her leaves them wanting

what the picture-taker made
        his own in just three days

of close-ups the six weeks
        before she died. He caught

her before the glitter rubbed
        off, got intimate in a way

that never did convey what
        the camera couldn't see

and wouldn't produce once
        the focus blurred. The last

sitting had nothing to do
        with how diamonds reflect

what a lover's worth. His
        romance was turning her

into tones and planes, his own
        living doll on the printed page.

© 2011 Maureen E. Doallas
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This poem is my response to today's photo prompt at Magpie Tales. The image is titled "Diamonds" and is from Bert Stern's Marilyn Monroe Collection, "The Last Sitting", comprising more than 2,000 images shot over three days in 1962, six weeks before Monroe's death. The poem's last couplet borrows a bit from this quotation by Stern: "I was preparing for Marilyn's arrival like a lover, and yet I was here to take photographs. Not to take her in my arms, but to turn her into tones, and planes, and shapes, and ultimately an image for the printed page."

The photograph and others by Stern (b. 1929) can be seen here and at Magpie Tales, as well as at many other fine art photography sites displaying Stern's work. Stern published a selection of his photographs in 1992 in Marilyn Monroe: The Complete Last Sitting. In 2008, Stern shot actress Lindsay Lohan as Monroe in "The Last Sitting". (See a New York magazine article about that here.)

Write your own poem or flash fiction response to the prompt, using the image provided, then go here to add your own link and to read the other participants' contributions.