Alone in Paris at thirteen
changed her name to Marie Duplessis
a famous courtesan at eighteen
in an apartment on the Boulevard de la
Madeleine
Alexandre Dumas captivated
by her beauty – started a strange romance
enduring beyond her marriage to an old beau
lasting till her death at the age of twenty-three
from tuberculosis
She described herself as gay
with a gaiety sadder than grief
a coffin covered with camellias lowered in
Montmartre - and Dumas wrote
La Dame aux Camelias
Inspiring Verdi’s play La Traviata
giving Marie musical immortality –
- Dumas’ undying love is
sadder than the opera - why
could she not marry
her faithful love, Dumas
there is something wrong with life
but in another dimension of the multiverse
Marie is still alive in the arms
of her Dumas...
Margaret Alice
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/gaiety-sadder-than-grief/
