Margot Douaihy

VIEWERS LIKE YOU

The body in the library.
The page torn. Wedding dress
never worn. Gold watch stopped
as poison pierced the blood stream.
The killer left a clue! Or is it a ruse?
The game’s afoot. Murdertainment.
Locked-room puzzler.
Tired feet on mean streets.
Following the tortured
detective into the dark bar
where she stares into depths
that never blink back.
Why do we watch?
Redemption? Destruction?
Fist busting through drywall,
the sibling who stops calling
after the last will is read.
Meanwhile, the globe rotates
so fast we don’t notice.
The cobweb survived the storm—
gothic geometry intact.
Your travel mug travelled on
the roof of the Subaru,
like an angel or friend,
after freeing your hands to dig for keys.
The cat walked home, across two states.
Ghost orchestra of cicada & moon.
Can any good mystery ever be solved?
No identity revealed, revenge delivered.
Still we search—for proof, for clues,
something, anything that says
you’ll be okay. We’ll find a way.
Throw me the keys
& let’s get the hell out of here.


Margot reads "Viewers Like You":



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Margot confesses: "‘Viewers Like You’ is an evocative phrase that precedes PBS programs like Poirot, Miss Marple, and Sherlock. I’ve always been captivated by this phrase; it spoke directly to me while acknowledging a community of viewers, and voyeurs. As a hardboiled PI writer and lifelong mystery fan, I am less interested in the grim and gruesome details of ‘the murder’ and more invested in the ways crime storytelling can reveal our strength, resilience, and innate will to survive.”

MARGOT DOUAIHY, PhD, is the author of “Scranton Lace” and “Girls Like You,” both published by Clemson University Press. Her true-crime poetry project, Bandit Queen: The Runaway Story of Belle Starr, is forthcoming with Clemson University Press. Douaihy’s work has been featured in PBS NewsHour, The Colorado Review, North American Review, The Tahoma Review, The Wisconsin Review, and The Petigru Review. She is the editor of the Northern New England Review.