"Animal Instincts" (National Poetry Month poem-a-day) Day 12

written by Bruce A. Pandolfo
4/12/2017

Mike finds his wife lying at their staircase base
face down unconscious in a bad state, sprayed
crimson, bloody and bludgeoned it's too fucked
Marooned as an island in a pool of maroon blood
like the pool they spent the night 'round 'neath the moon drunk

Mike phones in a frenzy, a freaky familiar interlude
He can't get his head straight when the operator interviews
Very similar to another time, not time for verisimilitude
Figure's she stepping like the sentences he's tripping through

gritty it wasn't pretty, sirens blaring, sight dimming
Crying trying to clean her up, his dizzy head swimming,
Kathleen's doing the dead woman's float, it gets fishy,
wishy-washy wish she wasn't a bloody puddled pummeled pity

But see in the 80's somehow Mike found a lady in the same way,
spotted at the bottom of the stairs, reaper food with her brain caved
Novel coincidence, this novelist couldn't write it any stranger,
it made waves with the jury that was judging Mike later

They noted the similarity: “disgusting Peterson struck again”
then struck again and again until Kathleen met her end
with a million dollar motive from insurance benefiting
ensured they'd all buy it and he's sent to get a fitting life in prison

The mystery doesn't end there, it's still a who-dun-it
their lawyer neighbor Larry checked the info that went public
Thumbing through the files of the woman who was bludgeoned,
found a microfiber filament from who struck her in the blood test

The data backs it all up, Mike was wrongfully indicted
Larry went to the precinct with his theory arrived,
The office offered side-splitting asides, he split chided
Two papers got a hold of Larry's story and derided

Larry ignored the knee-slapping, he was right he decided
Many birds of prey have injured people mid nights mid-flight
8 years later his neighbor's case breaks despite his rep blighted
Still getting at getting out, having the story righted
it goes...
There were owl feathers meshed in the mess of her hair
Bird of prey flew from the nest and dive bombed her right there
Owl crashed talons slashed while she's taking out the trash,

dizzy from the blitzkrieg, Kathleen collapsed by the stairs.


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