"The large bed had a powder-gray satin quilt and no headboard.  A small lamp and a framed photograph of Gladys Baker with sunken cheeks and a prominent widow's peak, sat on Marilyn's night table. “

                        Barbara Leaming:  Marilyn Monroe

Weighted blankets weren’t a trend back then.
Barbiturates were.
She would have benefited from the pressed grounding.
Gravity’s hefty palms cradling her through the cushioned pits
of pentobarbital oblivion.  

Sleep mimicked abandonment,
a voluntary act of release
into which she could not succumb without sedation.   

Even from her tangled stupor
she dialed,
a cord not far from her languished limb,
letting the wet digits linger on her tongue
as she whispered 555…

Tara E. Sturgill (she/her) is a scientist and poet residing in Kentucky. She’s a mental health advocate, LGBTQIA+ ally, volunteer, friend to houseplants, and an introvert. To date Tara’s work has been published in Pangyrus, Arts of Thought, Constellate Magazine, and is forthcoming in others. Connect/plugin at tespoet.com