Virginia Woolf In Hollywood Poem by Stephen Roxborough

an article in a prestigious journal
claimed she won the Oscar because
they made her act with a rubber nose
the nose transformed her
from sex goddess
to tortured writer who ended up
putting rocks in her pockets walk in
over her head and drown
in a deep river it must
have been a great performance
she kept her composure throughout
even though the rubber nose
wanted to fall off after every cut
i was secretly rooting for the nose
to stay on but how could it?
it was so unnatural

she just had to go

when she walked into the river
insiders on location watched the nose
finally fall and float quietly
downstream
unfortunately the underwater camera
jammed and the most thrilling
shot of the film
was lost

hours later i couldn't help think
what a better writer
she could have been if only
she wasn't forced to wear that damned
suffocating rubber nose surely
the screenplay would have included
humor and she might have even believed
she was a little happier