I never gave Jayne two thoughts

until she didn’t save me from sliding under

an eighteen-wheeler, just a man with a name

like mine said fast on the radio, famous 
enough the calls wouldn’t stop. You can’t act

except on the chances you get. She got by

with what she had, old-school va-va-va-voom,

“Here they are” how Jack Paar welcomed her 
on The Tonight Show, some people less

than the sum of their parts, a handful

of passable films and one spectacular

wreck on leaving a Biloxi dive. 
Some roles one doesn’t walk away from.

She inspired steel not silicone, the world,

as audiences go, arbitrary

as the gods, endowed too late with mercy, 
transforming the object

of their attention into a tree, a bird,

a star, any impact pure coincidence,

like a collision or meeting someone.