Seventh (Noir in Six Parts)
Janice Lee

1.
Could you not leave the place alone
Make a sentence of hare, hunt, field
Now you're ready for Nietzsche, my darling
Marriage is the basis of human decency
Let's say you're kissing a strange girl
Poets were flighty people with large families
You'll regret not taking me with you

2.
And she was not at the world's edge
How did you slash your dress, love
Did you dine with me that evening
Near the back edge of the open
She knew what was coming -- an aesthetic
We all belonged to the same club
The hare is hunted in the field

3.
I bet it's beautiful on that cliff
You've confused her; thou shalt not commit
This little red stain, insisting she live
She felt it prudent to disguise herself
The hare crossed the field hunting mare
Since childhood she had been reading greatness
Everyone agreed this was a bad idea

4.
It was blustery, cold on the verge
Husbands helped wives to table scrap tops
The photographs hardly differed one from another
The hunt for a field of hare
The anaesthetic glue, the pot for sealing
She forgot to greet the journalists today
Accidents happen; that is why death rattled

5.
The encroaching vegetation followed and followed her
If she weren't riding in a circle
She didn't want to be out walking
She discussed the possibility of a parole
Dramatic satire in short and long forms
The field stretched hare to the hunt
She had only a few coins left

6.
She stumbled rashly down to the water
Made a question of hare, hunt, field
Her act is not related to aesthetic
The evil men said was inside her
The only person who ever came in
At any moment she would find money
And steps, and no one standing there