AVENGER – my Peter Gabriel-inspired crime poem for 30 Days of the 5-2

AVENGER

I know
something about
opening pimpers and whores

I know
how to kill quietly
and mop up
bloody wooden floors

I know
how to hide body parts
behind my cabinets and drawers

Clipping the strippers
Clipping the strippers of their spinal cord wires
Their stunned paralysis inspires
Inspires me

I like
laughing at lap dancers when they’re tied to chairs
I like
listening to harlots when they make their final prayers
I like
watching while they clutch their throats for air

Avenger’s happy in the dark
Avenger’s come
Avenger’s come to take away your mark,
devil’s mark
devil’s mark

I am the Avenger

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ABOUT:
Peter Gabriel’s song, “Intruder,” is one of the creepiest “crime poems” I’ve ever heard set to music, so I wrote the dark homage above as my contribution to “30 Days of the 5-2” — a special guest blogging marathon, with a new poem or article posted each day of April — in celebration of National Poetry Month.

I’ve contributed to the 5-2 several times in the past, including a poem and online reading of it (“This is How I Murdered the Librarian”) and last year’s extensive NaPoWriMo celebration of Angel Zapata’s excellent work in an extensive essay (“Outlaws at the Treffpunkt”). The 5-2 is an awesome journal and I hope you’ll check them out regularly, and support their ebooks (editor Gerald So will contribute the income to Academy of American Poets this month).