Green River Prelude for a Serial Murder

GREEN RIVER PRELUDE FOR A SERIAL MURDER / Colleen J. McElroy Despite the headlines, you keep coming Believing a trick is something you turn or take A blade slipped quickly back into its sheath Eyes behind the face you've learned to fake None of this shit about dirt waiting for night Even in sunlight, neon dominates the strip The trash that truckers leave on the way to routes That will take them past Shelton and Davenport Makes you feel good to be wrong and gaudy You look for easy pay or pinch, and white Or black, work it smooth as a handshake or aspirin At sixteen, the clatter and pitch of chipped Cups and thick glasses of he-man beer and coffee Make you feel put-down right and raw Inside your game of who-cares-who-wins You're no con man waiting for money Just a slick kid leaving behind teacher-neat Comments on deportment and why you never fit The body that now gets insulted on sheets At sixteen, you can blow in or off the strip To easy money and the vertigo of cockeyed Discounts on auto parts, wholesales and U-hauls And you haul all the words from between your legs If some fool asks you to explain yourself The sounds slip easily into the deadweight Of air thick with the grooved darkness Of never sleeping completely or naked You will attend only to what's hanging over The door, the posters of women slamming Their bodies into curb dates and vacant ceilings Tell them, baby - this is your fucking dream So who the hell cares if some crazy is collecting Your kind today - outfitting them with dull Expressions that centerpiece tabloid stories Some sandman who slits throats and hangs Drops of blood like beads from his belt You know this has nothing to do with love or hate 56 ¦ The Missouri Review It's just walking from one day to the next Trying out some melancholy song you think women sing Trying to see if it can work for you Colleen J. McElroy The Missouri Review · 57 ...