Dark Sparkler by Amber Tamblyn

Author:Amber Tamblyn [Tamblyn, Amber]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2015-02-06T05:00:00+00:00

I am a distant explosion of myself again. A star. Remember

being a star.

This is how to die in the arms of a suburban wind,

learning how to be forgotten

over and over again.

Frances Farmer

1.

The doctors spent ten years working on flower arrangements

in the boned vase that held up her brain.

When she came out, you could see through her skin to the frozen pipes.

Her fingernails were green boats beached into their mossed beds.

At the movie premiere, she dragged a leg behind her.

Walked on the side of her ankle in front of the photographers.

Frances! they’d clamor,

Tell your fans how you keep such a trim figure!

Her eyes cooked like the fresh campfires

of convicts on the run.

Everyone loved her new hairstyle—

two oiled fish skins parted down the middle.

Frances!

Tell us what you’ve been up to all these years!

What was it like to work with Tyrone Power?

Frances opened her mouth to answer

A bug crawled out, fell to the ground

and burrowed right back into a hole in her foot.

The paparazzi followed her every move,

taking shots of liquid

she’d leave behind.

They loved the beads

of blood she wore down her neck.

The yellow diamonds

crusted in her eyes.

The tie-dye trend of

immortal death. To die forever.

After an embrace, her lover found himself

leaning down

to pick up all her bones off the ground.

2.

Mr. Harvester came home one evening and found a trail

of withered deer thighs on his front lawn.

Mrs. Pellington found muddy footprints leading up her front porch

and only muddy handprints leading away from it.

An old roommate of Christine swore she saw someone

climb a telephone pole one night to eat pigeon eggs from their nests.

Rumor had it someone had been stealing chicken hearts

from the Branson Family Butchery.

The Weintraubs in 4B went missing, completely.

All the children knew better.

Something was strange

about the fleshed thing

that lived at the end of their street.

One of the children,

a young boy named Bruce,

called her Francestein.

Francestein.

3.

Bruce and his mother sat in the living room

watching an episode of This Is Your Life.

The guest, Frances Farmer, listened to the voice of a surprise guest

who would reveal himself as an old friend.

The old friend ran out onto the stage

and threw his arms around Frances.

The audience applauded.

Frances mirrored the man,

doing as he did,

moving her arms

in his way,

feeling as he felt.

Bruce watched her nose

sniff at the side of the friend’s head,

her tongue like a worm, searching

for a way in.

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