Four-Year-Old-Kaitlin Jones

The body of four year old Kaitlin Jones found today
Mutilated, raped, and murdered in unknown order
Kaitlin had been missing for three weeks
Police had called in the FBI after an Amber Alert failed and no leads uncovered
A search party had been organized by friends and family
Her mother screamed when night fell and Kaitlin was not found
It had been expected the strong-willed little girl was hiding
Kaitlin had been under the care of Dr. Goode, PhD and categorized as
oppositional defiant
Her grandfather thought she was just a little girl who knew what
she did and did not want
But even he had to agree that something was wrong when Kaitlin was not found in any
of her secret places where she often stayed for hours on
her own
The family was never under suspicion of any foul play
Neighbors responded to the mother’s screams, coming together
in their nightclothes
Making coffee, flyers and organizing search parties, some brought their untrained dogs on long leashes, others stayed with the family
keeping up a stream of platitudes
The day Kaitlin disappeared she had been given
a peanut butter and jelly sandwich
with the crusts on and the jelly rather than the peanut butter on top
Kaitlin had fallen to the floor shocking the new baby-sitter with her
melt-down
A moment later she ran from the kitchen into her room and slammed the door
Kaitlin’s room was on the ground floor
In case of such a melt-down, the baby-sitter had been instructed to
let Kaitlin
“be”
No one noticed four-year-old Kaitlin climb from her window
and drop
to the ground
Where she ran across the field toward the wooded
hiking trail that snaked into the woods
Along the highway unseen but heard
rushing in the distance
beyond the trees
Where a young man had parked his car, walked for a while and waited for
something to happen - Like
a four-year-old girl who didn’t like her peanut butter and jelly sandwich

(note: for those not familiar with the form the most important details are in the first lines moving in descending level of consequence)

Public notice: re: Mary Jones & Denise Smith

Mary Jones & Denise Smith for each other no longer legally responsible
Mary & Denise were simply incompatible
and decided to go each their separate way
after years built upon angst ridden day after day
wondering what was wrong between them and how that to say
months and months more of therapy which both needed to pay
Hung in and tried to compromise understand and grow in the same way
Drawn to each other and yet unsure they had what it took to stay
Mary & Denise had originally met ten years ago in May

Four-Year-Old-Kaitlin Jones

The body of four year old Kaitlin Jones found today
Mutilated, raped, and murdered in unknown order
Kaitlin had been missing for three weeks
Police had called in the FBI after an Amber Alert failed and no leads uncovered
A search party had been organized by friends and family
Her mother screamed when night fell and Kaitlin was not found
It had been expected the strong-willed little girl was hiding
Kaitlin had been under the care of Dr. Goode, PhD and categorized as
oppositional defiant
Her grandfather thought she was just a little girl who knew what
she did and did not want
But even he had to agree that something was wrong when Kaitlin was not found in any of her secret places where she often stayed for hours on
her own
The family was never under suspicion of any foul play
Neighbors responded to the mother’s screams, coming together
in their nightclothes
Making coffee, flyers and organizing search parties, some brought their untrained dogs on long leashes, others stayed with the family
keeping up a stream of platitudes
The day Kaitlin disappeared she had been given
a peanut butter and jelly sandwich
With the crusts on and the jelly rather than the peanut butter on top
Kaitlin had fallen to the floor shocking the new baby-sitter with her
melt-down
A moment later she ran from the kitchen into her room and slammed the door
Kaitlin’s room was on the ground floor
In case of such a melt-down, the baby-sitter had been instructed to
let Kaitlin “be”
No one noticed four-year-old Kaitlin climb from her window and drop
to the ground
Where she ran across the field toward the wooded hiking trail that
snaked into the woods
Along the highway unseen but heard rushing in the distance
beyond the trees
Where a young man had parked his car, walked for a while and waited for
something to happen - Like
a four-year-old girl who didn’t like her peanut butter and jelly sandwich

Inverted Pyramidic Logic - or Upside Down Thinking

The following was written in response to a Poetic Aside prompt the form involves lines that move in descending order of consequence....although I'm not truly sure this form lends itself to poetry where each line and in those rare and wonderful cases each word lends meaning to the whole.  Nevertheless.... here went nothing...
(If not obvious the following poem was meant to reflect an "upside" logic to feelings about the history of the Jewish people)

Jews rule the world financially
turn the wheel historically
testaments, inexplicably, majestically high
carrying, laying, building
thronged slaved workers toil and die
hand wrought joined by others
one by one
brick in the hot desert sun