when the cook laughed and told
me someone had sure tasted a sour cherry,

they'd raped an old maid woman in town,
threatened her with a shotgun, beat her up good,

I'd known the woman all my life and
not for a second did I think of strangers,

the teenagers in town quickly decided only
two of us were stupid/evil/bored/crazy enough,

take your pick, to do a deed like that,
our bets were on a guy named Bear,

but we were surprised that even through his
ever-present drug-induced violent rage,

he thought it was a stupid thing for someone to do,
if she'd been younger, it might have been cool,

so we knew it was Frank, and sure enough it was,
brains were never his long-suit, he was quickly caught,

we were tipped off when we thought of how often he
bragged about his father urging him to screw his mother,

as a young kid he had been skinny, dirty clothes,
green teeth, and a perpetually runny nose,

I'd teased him on the school bus and now I remembered,
how cruelly once I had wrapped up a fake birthday present,

even as a child I knew I had gone too far, when I saw that flicker
of hope, quickly replaced with his normal blank expression.

Some people are suprised by the evil others do.
I have never been surprised.

--Nitty