Tuesday, June 9, 2020

Bobby's Girl



image from pinterest.com

Bobby’s Girl

“I believe children are our future. Teach them well, 
and they will lead the way.”--Whitney Houston.

I was perusing
tombstones on line,
and I came across the photo
of Miss Bobbi Kristina Brown.
I was struck by how young
she was when she passed,
lauded as Daughter,
                 Granddaughter,
                 Niece and
                 Friend,
But no mention of
                 Wife or
                 Mother.

I looked up her birthday,
March 4, 1993,
to find out what was
going on that day--
Katherine Hepburn was
hospitalized for exhaustion,
Michael Jordan was given
another sports award,
and OMG, Bobbi Kristina Brown
was born, her parents being
Whitney Houston & Bobby Brown!

Her back story lit up
like a delta sunrise
from the cobwebs of my mind.
Her parents had a series
of reality shows, and she grew up
on television. 

Besides providing revenue,
the “reality” of their private lives
allowed us to see the very
unattractive side of the dysfunctional
family and little Bobbi came off
as spoiled, precocious, arrogant, 
quite obese, sad and rebellious.
She had several siblings from 
Bobby’s former marriages,
but none of them were around much.
Both parents used drugs
and battered each other openly.

At 17, with some professional help,
she lost a lot of weight, and became
a wild partying teen, crashing Porsches
and having to be bailed out of jail.
Her posse of other celebrity brats
created non-stop mayhem.

She decided, spurred on my her friends,
that was going to be 
an actress, singer & dancer;
but sadly she had no talent
for any of these pursuits.

In 2012, Whitney Houston
was found face down and drown 
in her bathtub, veins full of drugs.
At 19, Bobbi inherited her mother’s
estate. She was too emotionally
devastated to leave the house for a year.
She regained weight, and she did enough
drugs to kill a horse.

In 2015, she was found unconscious
in her bathtub ( I wondered if it was the same
tub her mother had died in?) 
She was revived, but was in a drug-induced
coma for six months. She never woke up, passing
away on July 26th. Dead at 22, with $115 million
bucks in the bank, without it seems, finding
true happiness.


Glenn Buttkus

Posted over at d'Verse Poets Pub

12 comments:

Jade Li said...

Perfect title for your poem. What you describe about the family is similar to describing the symptoms of a disease. A fatal disease. So much of one thing but little of the other :( May she finally rest in peace.

Sascha Darlington said...

It was as if she never had a chance.

Dwight L. Roth said...

Nicely done Glenn. You show how money can't buy happiness! A very sad story indeed!

Frank Hubeny said...

Money doesn't buy happiness. It is unfortunate. Well described. I only knew about Whitney Houston, but there is more to all these stories.

Kim M. Russell said...

I didn’t know anything about Bobbi Kristina Brown until I read your poem, Glenn, so it was a shock to find out how young she was when she died, and so sad that she never got to be a wife or mother. It can’t be easy as the child of famous parents and growing up on television – reminds me of the Osmonds, the Jackson Five and other famous childhood stars but, you say she had no talent and then her mother died. What a waste of life - by her parents!

Laura Bloomsbury said...

Fame did not bring happiness here - great title!

Jane Dougherty said...

Another very good reason for the redistribution of wealth. Money kills.

Kerfe said...

All those cliches about money are true.
This is a sad, sad story.

Debi Swim said...

A sad story. "Poor little rich girl" happens way to often.

brudberg said...

Such a very sad story... as were her mother's (who had talent enough for the whole family). Only Bobby left I guess.

purplepeninportland.com said...

It was as if her fate was sealed from the beginning of her sad life.

Misky said...

It's a rather shocking tale of parental neglect, in my opinion.