Poetry Journal #16 - Natalie

While Natalie Wood twirls in the Tennessee night
suspended above trucks
Billy pushes me down on the seat
fumbles with my bra.

He's heavy and clumsy
wants me for his steady girl
leaves a hickey on my breast.

I know how to hide traces of sex
with powder and perfume
how to please penis and mama
at the same time

go through a string of Billies
settle out of state
for one of them.

Years later Natalie falls off a boat.

I dream I'm treading water when
she reaches for help.
Afraid of going under
I watch her drown.

-Chella Courington, Southern Girl Gone Wrong


What fascinates me in this poem is the interplay between the speaker and Natalie Wood. At the beginning Natalie "twirls above trucks," presumably on a movie screen at a drive-in theatre. In that scene, the speaker is being "pushed down" by Billy, so there is an interplay between the elevation of the two women. Later in the poem the speaker dreams of watching Natalie wood in the ocean near the boat she fell off of. The poet, treading water, could reach out to help Natalie, but is afraid of going down herself and so watches her drown. So by the end of the poem the two women have switched positions. Going back to the beginning of the poem, perhaps the Speaker feels herself "drowning" under the Billies of the world, and has finally found a way from drowning, though still in the water.