"Hunting for Bess Flowers"

she’s everywhere

Chaplin unwrappd her
Wilder gave her a notepad
Hitchcock a poodle

Bess drank more cocktails
than anyone in film
she dined at Sardi’s & Ernie’s
danced for Mitchell Leisen & Bobby Lewis

I’ve been spotting her
for half a century

* * *



where in The Cantos
is her walk-on?

surely no extra
was ever as “trim-coifed”

* * *

Bess’ place
is Hollywood

so I can’t
find her in
Paterson or
The Maximus Poems

* * *



Alexander Mackendrick put
Bess in Toots Shor’s

so she cd’ve been
in Lunch Poems

O’Hara
mentions “Swingtime”
but names Ginger
not Bess

* * *

Dorn daren’t
put her in Slinger

too gay

* * *

so far
I’ve only
read
500 pages
of Dillinger
so maybe
Moore
has used
Bess

* * *

I confess
I confuse
movies & poems

* * *
put her snippets
together

a bouquet
whose aroma permeates
my life