An expanding knot in my stomach before I even open the front door –
I sense the tension, the held back cries, the hope shattered on our floors.
My weak limbs pull themselves over the doorstep, I’m covered in dirt.
Yesterday three of my closest friends went missing, no one’s yet heard.
I’ve got an alibi three towns south, but did the escapee break the news?
That girl Vicky’s yet to apologize for the friction and pay what’s due.
But the look on my father’s face is more than pity or any other sadness –
Shatters of his very heart lay all over our place, growing in their vastness.
My brother’s there too, he holds me for far too long before I realize
My younger sister’s missing…
No amount of tears can suffice.
Taken, she’s been taken, someone took her. That’s all I really hear.
I hope this someone has the guts to face my painful fury, oh dear.
My feet take me out of the house, all across the putrid hometown.
I’ve heard of this gracious green-eyed beast making her rounds.
The lady’s deadlier than I’ll ever be but what’s the point of my pride?
The plain street I walk down has one eccentric house – I’m down for the ride.
Her seven inch heels click on the surfaces before she lets me in –
Beautiful, eloquent, well-reversed and funny, clearly deadly as sin.
While I don’t mind the corpses in her garden, she doesn’t mind my intrusion.
There’s common sense even between the worst of ghouls with no illusions.
We strike a deal as her fairy-tale clock strikes three in the afternoon.
I promise to give her a hand with her garden,
She promises to become one of my goons.
-JW
The Daily Writing of Jackie Wright 