
#Haiku: Shotcaller
What I say goes:
Dominance creates
My existence in
Others’ eyes.

#Haiku: Shotcaller
What I say goes:
Dominance creates
My existence in
Others’ eyes.

#Haiku: Alive
Energy
Boils cells
Floods flesh
Pervades brain
Bubbles pores:
Ignites
Being

#Haiku: Autoclave
Parts melt
Under pressure;
Quiver,
Fuse, resolve into steel or
Explode

#Haiku: Negative Energy
Anger
Escalates;
Mutates;
Rage hijacks;
Synchs
Aggression.
Try
Breath work

#Haiku: Old vs New
Antique gods
Mandated murder;
New goddess favors
Propagation.

#Haiku: Quid Pro Quo
Tit, meet
Tat.
“Gifts” trigger
Obligation:
Intoxicating
Poison.

#Haiku: Subterfuge Inc.
Ruse patrol:
Dissimulating –
Saboteuse –
Guerilla guest –
C’est moi.

#Haiku: The Emotional Archive
Sun withdraws;
Cry. Heat swells –
Sing. Intent
Blooms. Journaling honors
Life pulse.

Chapter 20 – The End
We flew to a hotel at LaGuardia,
Called Derek, whose father suggested
Vince Tromwell. He got
Mirabel immunity as long as she told
“the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth”
and after they tested the shirt and the knife
Verne even confessed –
If you call taking an Alford plea –
(Which legally means “You got me”) –
Confession. Verne got forty years
On each count with deportation
Instead of parole.
Mom and Dad didn’t mind
Having a yoga teacher in the family –
They both started yoga –
I admit I did too –
That’s what big sisters are for;
They go through everything first
So you don’t have to.
We get to be writers, we
The little sisters
Poets and thinkers of all the peaceful
Afternoons; assessing, not
Regressing, savoring even
The upside down moments
Right side up and
Passing them to history.
It worked on everyone but Mr.
Mowgley, English teacher,
Who said;
“Shouldn’t you write this
In the third person voice
To gain some distance?”
I said, “Never.
I’m Richenda Marshott, only me and
I’ll never pretend to be
Anyone else.”

“Mirabel, you must let me
Tell Mom and Dad. They don’t
Deserve this silence.”
She turned mulish. Resistant.
More stubborn than I’d ever be.
“Mirabel is dead. It’s better for everyone.”
“Mom & Dad won’t miss me. I was
Nothing but trouble.”
I spoke truth when I said;
“I guarantee you that’s not true.
They will never get over you.
And in the meantime, Lord Verne gets away
With murder. He’ll just kill
Someone else, Mirabel;
Don’t you get it? Violence is
His foolproof way
To get what he wants.”
Mirabel moved her shoulders restlessly.
She’d almost escaped that life and saw me
Pulling her back.
“I can’t go to jail. I’d rather die.”
“People who make immunity
Deals don’t go to jail. Derek’s family
Must know a lawyer who’d negotiate
For you. You stay anonymous
Because deals never go to court.”
She eyed me suspiciously.
“What do YOU know about
Bargaining with prosecutors?”
“I have a Netflix subscription!
I watch the ID channel! If you tell them
What you know it might be enough
To convict him.
Get him out of all our lives
Forever.” Fingers crossed.
She struggled to believe me.
She had so little trust.
Yet I was the one
She’d invited inside.
“I have the murder weapon,” she admitted.
“I told him I got rid of it. And
The shirt he wore – it’s bloody.
In a safety deposit box.”
A thrill ran through me.
I hadn’t expected
Such cagey planning, but
I should have; from
The Girl Who Got Away.
“That’s probably enough,” I promised.
But still my sister hesitated,
Torn between embracing her
Imaginary life with its
Brand new identity and
Facing her destroyer.
I played my final card.
“You owe me,” I whispered.
“You owe the dead girls.
And so Mirabel – not Franny but
The grown up girl who’d always been
My sister; made up her mind.
She accepted herself; the way
I had always accepted her.