I used to collect weird newspaper headlines and stories. One of them inspired the poem below.
"Escaped Patients Killed by Train"
was the headline
that would have everyone believe
in irony as flesh:
hot-blooded and glamorous,
gorgeous and deadly;
always poised perfectly
to strike.
On the other hand,
may I point out
that the story itself
tells a different tale:
how the two women
"had walked out of the mental health unit
unnoticed
even though the two-story facility was locked,
and lay down
in front of a freight train
that struck and killed them."
Irony,
in this case,
not hot-blooded at all,
but actually a bit clammy
and somewhat annoyed
at having to crouch patiently
under bridges
and wait for victims.
The Train,
in this particular case,
entirely free
from any real guilt,
just in the wrong place at the wrong time—
yet, to the women,
wholeheartedly right
on schedule.
I get it. I am also guilty of clipping out strange stories from the newspaper, then months later I might take a fleeting thought to one of my own pieces.
Those weird newspaper stories are good writing prompts, aren't they, Fay! 🙂 This article is interesting to me because the headline is so sensational, as if the escaped patients were making their getaway and fell off a train or something. The actual story is that the women committed suicide by laying on the train tracks. Also, it's weird to me that there's nothing in the article about questioning the staff on how the women got out of the "locked" facility "unnoticed." Weird and tragic. Makes for a suitable poetry topic! 😉
escape from a locked facility...
train on a schedule...
dual suicide pact...
wow! nicely worked piece...
Thank you, Helen! I appreciate your summary--it sounds like a blockbuster movie! 🙂
Headlines as prompts is indeed a tried and true method. I belonged to a writers' critique group that required we each bring a headline clipping to the meeting and then each person had to draw one out of the basket and do a timed writing prompt. Yikes - had some really weird ones, which comes as no surprise to any of us who know - reality IS stranger than fiction. 🙂
Good job, Sam!
Thanks, Maryjo!
An amazing poem!!!
I appreciate your comment, Shelley!