[Rose Kelleher]

On Perusing the Biography of Edna St. Vincent Millay

I'm Edna St. Vincent Millay, my friend,
I'm Edna St. Vincent Millay,
if you took her magnificent cinnamon hair
and redoubtable talent away.

I'm Edna St. Vincent Millay--that is,
if she were a bit Rubenesque,
and hadn't blue eyes or a Pulitzer prize,
and spent Saturday nights at her desk.

I'm Edna St. Vincent Millay! I'm just
as neurotic and flighty as she.
Though I'm no Aphrodite, my ego's as mighty;
my poems are all about me.

I'm Edna St. Vincent Millay, it's true,
as prolific with poems and prose;
I'd be just as promiscuous, too, if the right
opportunities ever arose.

I'm the Edna St. Vincent Millay of my day,
though I doubt she and I would be friends;
'cause I'm saddled with all of her character flaws
but that's where the resemblance ends.


(Autumn, 2003)