Miracle on 34th Street.
So good, she was terrifying.
Unable to cry on cue,
Mother tore a butterfly to pieces,
And she sobbed and sobbed.
Compartmentalized,
Body and spirit broken
By the hours at
Chateau Marmont.
From sweetness
To restlessness.
From academic nods
To drinking in the scenery.
From charmed head shots
To one too many dry martinis.
Gorgeous and gloomy,
"She clings to things with her eyes,"
And naturally was committed.
Her orchestra played
A signature tune:
Splendor in the Grass.
Picture is in the tank
And so is the marriage.
Again.
Furlough is on the brink
And so is the divorce.
Again.
Charting course,
Casting reels,
Dreaming where the boats vanish,
Drowning in a paradox of watercolors.
Who pushed you over the side,
Russian doll?
Wood drowned off Catalina Island on November 29, 1981, at age 43. The events surrounding her death have been explained by conflicting witness statements, prompting the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department under the instruction of the coroner's office to list her cause of death as "drowning and other undetermined factors" in 2012. In 2018, the man she had been married to was named a person of interest in the ongoing investigation into her death.