---

 

enjoy this writing from Kyle Hemmings in the free 6" x 9" 2017 PDF file chapbook: Scream (click on the front cover image or the title text to download the free PDF file)				You can also order this as a 2017 6" x 9" perfect-bound paperback ISBN# book! Click on the book cover or this title to get Scream as a book at any time!

Edie Sedgwick: Flashes of Her Childhood Are Flaky at Best

Kyle Hemmings

    As a child with five pairs of black buckle shoes, Edie had a parakeet she named Jimmy Durante. It was given to her by an aunt who complained of hearing helicopters over her neighborhood every night.
    One day, Jimmy Durante became very sick. Edie believed this was due to the fact that Jimmy Durante wanted to talk but his beak was too sharp for long vowels. He chirped like a child half-choking on hard candies. This happened around the time Edie’s father was having an affair with a Beverly Hills foot doctor who kept finding bugs in her bed sheets.
    Edie took Jimmy Durante to the veterinarian, an old man with a squeaky voice and floppy ears. At home, Edie dutifully fed Jimmy Durante nutrients through an eye dropper. Neither her parents nor her brothers took much interest in Jimmy Durante. Edie feared he was slowly being poisoned by her father, who adored caged silences.
    Jimmy Durante died.
    Edie called it murder.
    At the dinner table, Edie placed feathers on each of her family member’s plates. They sat stiffly, folded their arms, and flapped their elbows, breaking out into laugher as they did this.
    Edie cried for two years.
    After she left the crazy nest of her home, she searched for fame. In New York City, she found Andy Warhol. She said, “Andy, make me 100 reproductions of a bird.”
    When Andy couldn’t pay for her work in his films, she thought of Jimmy Durante.
    When a lover said that this is quits, she thought of Jimmy Durante.
    So many things reminded her of Jimmy Durante. He had flown back into her life without actually leaving it.
    In subways, she dropped pennies to see if anyone would retrieve them.
    Only sooty-faced children. Only drooling old men.
    Only people she would never know.
    She
refused to shave
her legs.
    She slept alone.

Copyright of written pieces remain with the author, who has allowed it to be shown through Scars Publications and Design.Web site © Scars Publications and Design. All rights reserved. No material may be reprinted without express permission from the author.

Problems with this page? Then deal with it...