Nineteen Words about Uncle
Decimated fingertips transposed
to where scalp once appeared
because you thought he was cute
and sorry wasn’t good enough.
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Nineteen Words about Uncle
Decimated fingertips transposed
to where scalp once appeared
because you thought he was cute
and sorry wasn’t good enough.
This could apply to many tragedies, and I’m not sure of the specific one you’re referring to…but “you thought he was cute/and sorry wasn’t good enough”…could apply to the George Huguelly/Yeardley Love debacle that has taken over all the media in my vicinity.
A very raw, sad picture painted here.
This was in fact about my own uncle who was murdered in 1978, the victim of a hate crime before there was even a name for it. I’m sure it’s happened thousands of times to many people, but this one took my sweet, kind uncle from us in a very tragic way. Thank you, Anne Katherine.
I’m so sorry about your uncle! Sorry isn’t good enough, of course. There aren’t words for such pain and loss. So I’ll just talk about the poem.
Without the title referencing your uncle, this could be about anything. I first thought of my favorite scene from one of the Silence of the Lambs movies, in which Lecter cut off the top of the guy’s head, fingered his brain, cooked it, and served it to him. … Next I thought of the way we scratch our heads when we’re confused, only in this case the fingers and head are destroyed.
So was he 19 when this happened?
No. he was in his early forties. I was thirteen when it happened. I remember what his apartment looked like afterward. Basically, he was clubbed to death in his own home.
And did they catch the killer? And did he serve time?
That is horrid.
And the sad thing is things are not that much better today. A little better, but at the core there is still a lot of hate around.
The murderer was caught in 1980. He served twenty years in Illinois and then was turned over to Texas authorities to stand trial for another murder committed there a few months after he killed my uncle. Thank you, Anne Katherine.
Enjoyed the tone in this, Richard. The gender roles we assign ourselves puzzle me sometimes. Back in the early 70′s when men began to enter the field of nursing, we looked at them askance. On the other hand, I never question the fact that my husband does all the cooking and shopping!
Thank you, Victoria, although I think this comment was meant to go in “The Martian Mystique” thread instead of the “Nineteen Words…” thread.