She Was Already Dead

[couchgrouch]

She Was Already DeadTom ducked beneath the crime tape, on University streethe saw a pale hand peeking, from a white cotton sheetthere were marks and bruises, all around her neckso when she hit the pavement, Tom had to suspectshe was already dead, she was already deadTom heard around the dorm rooms, from kids and campus guardsshe used her boyfriends quickly, in n out like debit cardstournequet in a key box, at some downtown bankthe blue-haired old teller, said her eyes were always blanklike she was already dead, she was already deadstaring at foreverso warm and pure and redpouring on the sidewalkleaking from her headyeah, she was already, she was already deadsomehow her past would speak,was she wicked or weakor just empty with regretsher life filled with lust,just like cheap sawdustfills a loner's stuffed petsTom fin'lly got a warrant, and grilled her college shrinkin a chain of sadness, there's always a first linkthree days after her dad od'd, a young girl sat starved and scaredrubber hose around his arm, and when the cops got thereshe was already dead, she was already deadstaring at foreverso warm and pure and redpouring on the sidewalkleaking from her headyeah, she was already, she was already deadwell, her boyfriend had a hearthard as an iron girdereven though he confessedhe said it wasn't murdercos she was already dead, she was already dead(c)2004 Robert George