Almanac Poetry: In the Good Old Days
Sleepy Middle America. (Source: Wikipedia.)
In the Good Old Days
mass murderers had crewcuts,
wore horn-rimmed glasses,
were Protestant Caucasian males
and lived in middle America.
They bought their polyester shirts from K-mart,
had pencils and pens in their front pockets
for no apparent reason
and, when finally captured,
after committing their awful crimes,
were photographed against whitewashed walls
of sleepy small-town cop stations,
vague, forlorn expressions
upon their unshaven faces.
When interviewed on the six o’clock news,
their neighbours always remarked
how ‘quiet’ they were,
‘real gentlemen’,
‘good with children’ too.
These county townsfolk would gaze
from the footpaths of peaceful, tree-lined streets
at the house of the perpetrator
which, we were disturbed to see,
looked very much like our own.
(previously published in Blue Dog: Australian Poetry, 2010; then in my second poetry collection, Lionheart Summer, 2011, Picaro Press, reprinted by Ginninderra Press, 2018)
Read more from Kevin Densley HERE
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About
Kevin Densley is a graduate of both Deakin University and The University of Melbourne. He has taught writing and literature in numerous Victorian universities and TAFES. He is a poet and writer-in-general. His fifth book-length poetry collection, Please Feed the Macaws ... I'm Feeling Too Indolent, was published in late 2023 by Ginninderra Press. He is also the co-author of ten play collections for young people, as well as a multi Green Room Award nominated play, Last Chance Gas, which was published by Currency Press. Other writing includes screenplays for educational films.
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