This poem makes me laugh out loud. Mitchell used to read it to me, and do it as a serious monlogue – just to make me guffaw with laughter. Especially with the melodramatic ending. Love Frank O’Hara.
Poem
by Frank O’Hara
Lana Turner has collapsed!
I was trotting along and suddenly
it started raining and snowing
and you said it was hailing
but hailing hits you on the head
hard so it was really snowing and
raining and I was in such a hurry
to meet you but the traffic
was acting exactly like the sky
and suddenly I see a headline
LANA TURNER HAS COLLAPSED!
there is no snow in Hollywood
there is no rain in California
I have been to lots of parties
and acted perfectly disgraceful
but I never actually collapsed
oh Lana Turner we love you get up
WA ha hahahahahahaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!
I’m howling!! I’d never heard that poem before!!