Bette

Oh my darling Bette Davis
You were a bitch and crude some still say
But I love you oh specter of the night sky
My dear beloved Bette
Beneath your skin of rock I see beauty
A delicacy that I could dive into and swim for all eternity.

You were a legend you were a star.
But to me you were a woman, a real woman
Your eyes, your beautiful, piercing eyes
Could tame the wildest fires
And frame the darkest night sky.

I never knew you, I never saw you or spoke to you
Life is hard on many, and it has discouraged many more
For us all it sharpens its thorns,
For the rich and for the poor.
You knew it all along. You warned me long ago in a dream.
You were misunderstood, you were too often left cold and scorned.
I wish I had known you.
We’d have made two eternal lovers
A son and a mother
Or I your faithful brother.

You were a red rose that could forever stand
The coldest nights and driest desert sands
I sit in a cafe where there are three older, nagging old women
Speaking as though they are all who exist
Their conversation is the cafe soundtrack
Their voices are thunderous, in which I fail to hear the slightest crack.
How would you stand amongst these hopeless old hacks?
Would you chime in and argue, would you walk away after giving them a slap?
I bask in the bliss of the cyclonic wellspring of admiration I hold for you,
Oh, patron of the lost and the abused,
Oh, eternal guardian of the fading afternoon,
My precious Bette Davis,
My darling baby blue.