ON A RAIN-SOAKED STREET

A poem dealing with my fascination for the dark side of Hollywood.

On a rain-soaked street
Reflecting garish neon
An aging glamour queen cries
For a lonely beggar who has died

It had been thirty years to the day
Since they first arrived at this place
Together on a bus from nowhere
They came to seek immortality

One was honored with a gold star
On the sidewalk embedded with tributes
The other lived in the grip of a bottle
And died in the grip of thief

And clutching his hollow face
Against her satin covered breasts
She cries out to the night
Cursing the City of Lights

And the decaying letters on the hill
Look down and laugh
As the beggar's diluted blood
Slowly fills Marilyn's handprint

John Harrison