[Ed. note: I swear the timing of this piece is coincidental.]
Our Jackie
We shan't mourn you in sackclcoth and ashes
Our icon to chic, classic, eternally now
Benefactor of thrift shops, we picked over for your castoffs
High on residues of your scentless scent.
No underarm odor stained the rags
of our American beauty
Who taught our style starved generation
Inured to Mamie and Pat's "cloth coats"
To ravage racks in guiltless eupohria
Remote from snooty doormen boutiques.
You were a consummate designer original
Up there with Imelda and Zza Zza
In memoriam, we celebrate your birthday
With a Fifth Avenue spree.
We spoke French, copied your hairdo, wore
pillbox hats
In dressing rooms, our mentor, you whispered:
"Take the Chanel, it's timeless,understated!"
Miss Porter's prize, destined for high-profile
romance
An assassin's bullet zapped your Camelot.
Goodbye Whitehouse, hello Big Apple
Tantalizing, aloof, yearning for privacy
Paparazzi beseiged your Central Park Tower
No Garbo,you let us peek.
Tabloid idols destructed
Your front page allure lasted
Jack and Ari were window dressing
For a discreet, cashmere clad ambition
You transcended parvenu husbands.
Sphinix-like, atop your dollar pyramid
An enigmatic gaze, hinted at pharonic secrets
Cleopatra with a dab of Debbie Reynolds.
Perhaps you'll join the pantheon
of icons
We loved to death?
Will a socialite Vassar grad
Once privy to New York's power elite
Find Elvis, Jimmy and Marilyn declasse?
Celestials are known to be democratic
Our Jackie O. warrants platinum digs
At least, she can count on copious storage
Essential for seasonal wardrobes
And infinite closet space.
Bio:
Professor Barbara Foster--
I want to let your readers know about our biography the secret lives of Alexandra David
Neel which overlook press published last summer. David Neel is best knon
for her daring journey to lhasa in 1924. She wrote 25 books onea eastern
themes and lived to 101. She was determined to show 'what the will of a
woman can do. (My co-author is Michael Foster.)