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

******

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).