The cadaver's dare

This poem takes quotes from this article, on the trial of a teenager in Missouri who killed her nine-year-old neighbor. It definitely touches on darker themes, so if that scares you, don't read ahead:



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The cadaver's dare

She was fifteen when she killed her neighbor,
     a week before she wrote:
"If I don't talk about it, I bottle it up,
     and when I explode someone's going to die"

She went to school for about a week and,
     dug two graves, one round one square
"I just fucking killed someone," she said.
     in the diary as she lay later in bed.

It wasn't such a difficult thing, she found
     she learned enough in science class
incision middle, cut straight across, pull out
     then tack it up - it's not so hard

"I strangled them and slit their throat," she wrote
     blood still seeping beneath her skin,
"and stabbed them now they're dead," she ended proud
     blood still crying from the dirt

It wasn't so difficult to see - she had seen
     the white skin and glazed over eyes
In online scenes and movie screens
     the pale grey stares of those who die

"I don't know how to feel atm," but she knew
     that she had done no wrong 
"It was ahmazing," for she knew that killing
     was not such a difficult thing

"As soon as you get over the ohmygawd I can't do
     this feeling, it's pretty enjoyable.
          I'm kinda nervous and shaky though
               right now."

And that night as she lay in her bed
     slept peacefully, the rhyme in her head
"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust," it said
     we all return to dust to join the dead

'Kay, I gotta go to church now...lol," 
     the prosecution read
but the sermon had nothing to be said
     for her or her neighbor,
             or for any who are dead

Only the living are subject to justice
     "If I could give my life to bring her back,
I would," said her three-year-older self
     but she lied
          for none return to earth
          of their own accord

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