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we never learned your given name
but did you still get married
the day after your dad lost
forty thousand smackers
to poor unlucky Marion

he wanted to buy his baby girl
a lavish wedding present
but marriage-coveting Marion
split with the cash
and the rest is grisly history

did your father still end up
buying you that house
daughter whose nuptials
inadvertently touched off
all this mayhem

Marion Crane lost everything
what did you lose
a sense of the world’s innocence
a pure white wedding day
unblemished by blood

did you think of how
your father’s moola
sped her way to death
appalled cello half-notes
descending like Marion
sliding down the wall
slipping out of life
eyes going out

how your dad flashed his green
until she couldn’t resist
becoming a blonde in a car
driving towards her black
and white demise



Gwynne Garfinkle is the author of a novel, Can’t Find My Way Home (2022), and a collection of short fiction and poetry, People Change (2018), both published by Aqueduct Press. Her work has appeared in such publications as Fantasy, Escape Pod, Uncanny, Apex, and Other Covenants. For more about her work, visit her website: gwynnegarfinkle.com.
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