04-23-2017, 03:26 PM
Tallulah, still young and beautiful
Dahlings, I was wonderful.
Once, when I was young. Now
I wish always, always for death.
I’m too old, worn, to attract a lover.
I’ve always wanted death,
sought oblivion in sex, drugs, booze.
Nothing else I want more.
Children? I had four abortions.
There is less to this than meets the eye -
I couldn’t be sure of provenance.
I’m as pure as the driven slush.
Like Nietzsche I link art to frenzy
I’m top of the Hays Doom Book.
A hysterectomy almost killed me.
I’m ambisextrous.
It wasn’t a woman who gave me the clap.
Blanche DuBois immortalized me.
(every unevenly numbered line is a direct quote from Tallulah Bankhead in interviews. The lines in italics are mine)
Dahlings, I was wonderful.
Once, when I was young. Now
I wish always, always for death.
I’m too old, worn, to attract a lover.
I’ve always wanted death,
sought oblivion in sex, drugs, booze.
Nothing else I want more.
Children? I had four abortions.
There is less to this than meets the eye -
I couldn’t be sure of provenance.
I’m as pure as the driven slush.
Like Nietzsche I link art to frenzy
I’m top of the Hays Doom Book.
A hysterectomy almost killed me.
I’m ambisextrous.
It wasn’t a woman who gave me the clap.
Blanche DuBois immortalized me.
(every unevenly numbered line is a direct quote from Tallulah Bankhead in interviews. The lines in italics are mine)