Now it is the time of night / That the graves, all gaping wide,
Every one lets forth his sprite / In the churchway paths to glide.– Puck, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”
Hollywood Suicide
She left behind the scent of her perfume,
A summer flower in the frost of fall.
It’s lonely in her quiet little room,
And so she wanders back through dusky gloom
To where the letters tower like a wall.
She left behind the scent of her perfume—
It’s dangerous, as if it could consume
A human soul, past miseries and all.
It’s lonely in her quiet little room,
Where no one comes to see her—all assume
She’s resting now, a little broken doll.
She left behind the scent of her perfume
To lead her back to where the letters loom
Across the hill, a mocking, ragged scrawl.
It’s lonely in her quiet little room,
Where shadows whisper to her in the gloom,
And even there she can’t escape her pall.
She left behind the scent of her perfume—
It’s lonely in her quiet little room.
Author’s Note
Back in the 1930s, an aspiring young actress named Peg Entwistle, despairing over her struggling career and her unhappy life, climbed to the top of the “H” in the “Hollywood” sign and jumped to her death. Over the years, various people have seen a strange, sad woman in old-fashioned clothing wandering the woods around the sign, and some have even reported the pungent scent of gardenias when the flowers were out of season. Gardenia was Peg’s favorite perfume scent.
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