Monday, April 28, 2025

MARILYN MONROE + Dr. Raft + An Irish Setter + Rowena

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Chandler Estates
+
Mt. Sinai
were a five-mile 
beach jog
due west of 
Rocky Point

I lived at Chandler's briefly
as a summer resident
in the same house where
Marilyn + Arthur Miller
had resided
twenty years prior
to that summer
 
I slept in 
a converted broom closet
of the rear apartment 
shared by Dr. Raft 
+ 
my former girlfriend
 
My alarm clock was
an Irish Setter
who would lick my face
and my day would begin
 
A woman named Rowena
lived in the front apartment
and "hated Marilyn Monroe"
(the former resident)
because 
—at all hours—
people knocked on her door
to hold a seance
+
 commune with
the spirit of 
the deceased actress
***
 
I knew some 
older boat owners
in Rocky Point
who claimed to have
given rides to Marilyn
in their motor boats
*** 
 
In 2001,
Suffolk County 
purchased the property
and renamed it
"Chandler Estate County Park"
***
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2 comments:

  1. How much of this is fiction?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. None of it is fiction but there is one qualifier:
      my psychoanalyst living with my "former girlfriend"
      is a subject we never discuss

      -Oliverio

      Delete