LYNNE JENSEN LAMPE 

Pondering Three of Marilyn’s Sketches in Red

     I want to be an artist, not an erotic freak.

—Marilyn Monroe

1. Lover watching his love sleep

 Line wisps into woman

almost a throwaway

back arched / nipples erect

 on display :: behind glass

 the man / contours of head

 and hand heavy as he

leans on a windowsill /

smashes his face against

 the pane

2. A glass of champagn the morning after*

 The night before too

plus a couple of knockout

drops to help her sleep ::

 she drowsed Conté

 across the paper / barely

 there and still tipsy :: bowl

tilts right / stem left

broken :: one coupe

 makes a lonely celebration

3. Nude tucking her knees under

 Calendar girl has no head ::

Marilyn shrugs

red crayon into curves

 a huddle of legs / back

 / the barest of breasts

 :: one shoulder arrows

outward / points

*Marilyn Monroe misspelled champagne when she wrote the title on the sketch.

https://www.artsy.net/artist/marilyn-monroe

Lynne Jensen Lampe has poems in or forthcoming from Olney Magazine, Yemassee, Moist Poetry Journal, and elsewhere. Also to come is her chapbook Talk Smack to a Hurricane, about mothers, daughters, and mental illness (Ice Floe Press, 2022). A 2020 Red Wheelbarrow Poetry Prize finalist, she lives in mid-Missouri where she edits academic books and journals. Visit her at https://lynnejensenlampe.com or on Twitter: @LJensenLampe.