Poem 269

A not so comic ‘name’ poem …

… the unabashed impassivity of tone provokes you (hopefully) to interrogate it …

Lisa

Lisa was strangled with her own underwear
on one of those sharp nights before winter
when the odd thing like that happens
in Rotorua

she came round to my house once
when we were all sixteen and my parents
were away for the weekend
she was all over Paul and he thought he was
made unable to see right beside him
Harry had unzipped his pants grabbed
Lisa's leg and was sort of
humping her foot
we were hysterical
                                   it was about the funniest thing
Harry ever did actually

Lisa left her jacket behind
with a letter in the pocket
from her sister advice about some problem
her sister was saying if the guy really
loves you or you really love the guy
or something like that and how she really
couldn't give advice considering how her own
life had gone

I don't remember what Lisa looked like
I remember her jacket
and the details in the paper
how she got killed
how he hung himself in jail
how his uncle went round swearing he was
no relation and the guy who sold him the LSD
kept thinking it was his fault
until he had a breakdown

I was alright though
all I did was read her letter