Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis 1929 - 94 Poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar

Jacqueline Lee Bouvier (Jackey)wrote a letter
To her fiancé John Husted insisting
To not give credence to the rumour
About her relationship with John Kennedy,
But she was wrong and had relationship
With John Filzgerald Knnedy in whom
She found all she wanted to get in life:
Wealth and the heart to let her spend as she liked.1

She broke the engagement with John Husted
Without remorse and gave him back his ring.
She had an uncanny foresight to hook
The right man from wooing two at a time.
She married John Kennedy in fifty-three
And became the first lady of US
In sixty when he became President.
With that came the pinnacle of her life. 2

Jackey became an international icon
For style, elegance, poise, and extravagance.
‘Mr. President is worried about
My budget more than that of the US.'
Said Jackey, and John Kennedy once said,
‘I am accompanying Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy.'
On French Paper heading about her visit:
‘The US first lady is beauty incarnate.' 3

Jackey came to India on a state visit
And charmed Indian PM. J. Nehru.
She too was impressed and drawn close to him.
She had acquaintance with Aristotle Onassis,
The Greek tycoon on his luxury yacht
To negotiate marriage of her sister Lee
To Onassis who found interest in her.
Onassis forgot Lee and fell for Jackey. 4

The president was assassinated
And fell on his wife lap in sixty-three.
She meanwhile bore for him a girl and a boy.
In her widowhood, Robert Kennedy,
For whom Marlin Monroe fell, though in vain,
Was the chief and close supporter for her.
Had he not been assassinated later,
Jackey would have remained as widow.5

Jackey married Onassis in sixty eight.
A sense of estrangement set on Onassis
From a leakage of her personal letters
Made to her former escort and lover,
Roswell Gilpatric in nineteen seventy.
Onassis was getting alienated from her,
And died in seventy five, for Jackey
To get second widowhood without regret.6

Jackey had several male companions.
And her quest for third husband was alive.
Maurice Templesman, a known associate,
Was her life companion when she celebrated
Her sixty first birthday in eight-nine.
She had kept herself remarkably young.
Jacqueline liked to forget all tragedies
And lived in peace, pleasure and opulence.7
June,2020