Donna Edwards
Cross My Heart
Holding hands they skipped to wave goodbye half way
school tomorrow can't be late
Roast lamb wafts delicious
I set knives forks salt pepper
mildly irritated we wait
void of comfort our clock ticks loud
lino pacing starts
appetites dwindle
Reality dawns stark as neighbours frown
dad shot to our car my younger brother another set of eyes two strong
voices
Tension precedes anxiety
prayer grips tight
I watch Mother dissolve
way too serious for tears I thought
never never in Disneyland
Lone wolf or apprenticed manipulator honing technique
recruited to find lost kittens in darkness they ran from his shabby blanket
was that downpour heaven sent
two drenched little girls knock shivering at an unknown door near vacant
lots
they're peeping from a police car
first time for our family so tall with checkered hats
Fright night style years later our gang sat crossed-legged around burning
candles
she told her creepy tale with torch light beaming under chin
casting mutilated shadows of doubt we stare riveted in disbelief
Did she tell all
nothing but the truth
no one wanted to know
Decades on unsolved disappearances linger while questions haunt thought
which bush telegraph was used
were scathing judgements irrefutable
too young to walk alone
Did this savage wakeup call happen after Australia's biggest case
exacerbating guilt
for no one was exempt from front page sadness those beaming Beaumont
images
Emboldened did that same sordid perpetrator strike again Ratcliffe Gordon
Bell and countless others
Rewards remain ignored for evil has too many friends and dark webs
spread
Little Spiderman
Pretty McCann
How many families suffer while elaborate constructs of closure unravel
then fade as incurable grief festers
My sister her friend
rarely played together again
lives shaken characters disrupted
society recalibrated
We may avert our eyes yet cold cases seldom disappear and truths lie lost