RUTH Z. DEMING - CRIME SCENE - DO NOT CROSS THE YELLOW TAPE

Ruth Z. Deming has had her work published in lit mags including Literary Yard, Blood and Thunder, Pure Slush, O-Dark-Thirty, and Your One Phone Call. A psychotherapist, she lives in Willow Grove, a suburb of Philadelphia. She's always proud to be published in Scarlet Leaf Review. ​​

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CRIME SCENE
DO NOT CROSS THE YELLOW TAPE
​

Shooter dead!
Who cares?
He shot my girl
Ducking under the tape
I went inside our favorite bar
A crime scene now
What horrible words
Like in a western
by Peckinpah

Her blonde curls
turned crimson red
I pretended she had
fallen asleep and would
carry my MaryBelle home
to bed. Chicken soup
would fix her up.

Officer Murphy took my shoulder
and led me out, out into the
world that mattered no more.

The shooter was dead. If 'n he wasn't
I would have gotten my hunting rifle
and drilled his body with more holes
than on a Swiss cheese sandwich

Life don't matter no more.
​