Sunday, April 27, 2014

About that Black as Pitch Poem

A poem has been on my mind but the story is so dark that I've been reluctant to write it.  Keeping the basis for the darkness a secret is stupid as that's just doing it like a mystery novel.  Once you learn who killed the Duchess, the mystery is not interesting anymore.

The intro is a maundering old guy in very ill health, likely terminal, and we'll get all sympathetic for him as he faces the inevitable in his staunch and steadfast way.  It looks very likely that he will kill himself rather than drawing out a melodramatic finale.  So sad.

Then a thought of her comes to him and he realizes there is unfinished business in his life.  He has known this but has ignored it.  He thinks of what he should have done years ago and sets forth to address that.  There was something he meant to give her and he means to do it now.

When he finds her, he reaches to his pocket to give her the gift and, you have probably predicted this, he shoots her.


OR


When he finds her, she shoots him.  He falls but his hand is in his pocket.  What's in the pocket:  a gun.


OR


Either of the above and we know all along that his plan is to cap the bitch so the purpose of the story is to tell the twisted stuff in the mind of a killer.  Screw teasing with the idea he will offer that engagement ring from long ago.  He's going to find her and he's going to fuckin' kill her.


This is not menu-driven poem writing.  It's just a schematic while I decide whether I want to write it out.  That part isn't hard but the overall thought has to be clear or nothing comes.

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