Sharon Waller Knutson

STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE

Sounds like the name of a delicious desert
or a tart who wrings her hands like a hanky
and confesses to poisoning her husband
with mushrooms mashed into a paste
after Perry Mason grills her like a fileted flounder.

Not the nickname for a redheaded juror
captured by the cameras wishing
the stranger she sentenced to death
would rot like rank bottom fish heads
stinking up the seaside in the searing sun.

The same juror who denies lying to fry Scott
like a sirloin steak in a skillet when
his death sentence is flipped over
by the California court’s top chefs
and strawberry shortcake is on the menu.

Not to be confused with his mistress
who wears a wire to coax him to confess
like the perps Perry persuades to flip
over lovers as smoothly as eggs over easy
with scallions and soy sauce in a spatula.

Only Scott slips and slides like a salmon
sizzling in olive oil and the defense will bake
strawberry shortcake in a very hot oven,
and like Perry, the prosecutor will try
to see Scott’s skin is burned to a crisp.


Aja Beech reads "Strawberry Shortcake":



Subscribe to Channel 52 for first view of new videos.


Sharon confesses: "I am an addict. My drugs of choice are mysteries, murder trials, delicious deserts and news stories. All addictions were triggered recently when a California Supreme Court overturned Scott Peterson’s death sentence and ordered a judge to determine if he get a new trial because of juror misconduct."

SHARON WALLER KNUTSON is a retired journalist who writes poetry from her Arizona desert home. Her work has appeared in Verse-Virtual, Your Daily Poem, Red Eft Review, The Song Is..., Orange Room Review, Wild Goose Poetry Review, and U.S. 1 Worksheets. She is the author of five chapbooks: Dancing with a Scorpion, My Grandmother Smokes Chesterfields, Desert Directions, They Affectionately Call Her a Dinosaur, and I Did It Anyway.