i.m. Laura Branigan
If I had been

born to wear

the stronger

color, I would have

been given

an offshoot

of the root of

Phyllis Laurena Branigan,

mother of

my mother,

who doesn’t

remember

Laura Branigan

(moonlight

on water forever

young), but trills

Umberto Tozzi’s

‘Ti Amo’ at stills

of John Wayne (star

of Brannigan),

made Marion,

an offshoot

of Marie (star

of the sea), root

of my parent

who channels

for her darling Charles

Bradley’s ‘Lovin’

You, Baby’,

cutting of a power

ballad by that

singer whose soul,

like Laura

incorporeal,

might wreathe

Is there

anybody here

but me?
Note: ‘pink, being a stronger color, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is

more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl’, Earnshaw’s Infants’ Department, 1918;

‘doesn’t remember’ reworks ‘don’t remember’ from Laura Branigan’s ‘Gloria’