Sharon Waller Knutson

THE DEVIL HAS GONE HOME
—Spectator at the execution of Paul Ezra Rhoades

Banks of black clouds
swirl like smoke
in a ghostly sky
as I leave Albertson’s
with a bottle of water
and organic bread
baked with grains and seeds.
For some strange reason
I wonder as I walk
across the parking lot
if a burly stranger high
on meth will be waiting
in my car and put a gun
to my head and force
me to drive him to the bank
and then rape and shoot me
nine times and leave me dead
in a field outside of town
like he did the pregnant
school teacher in 1987.
Then I remember the triple
murderer was put down
like a rabid pit bull
in a Boise prison ten years ago.
I relax and take a swig of water
and eat a slice of bread.


Aja Beech's YouTube video reading of "The Devil Has Gone Home":



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Sharon confesses: "We moved from Idaho to Arizona in 1998. We returned on family business. I realized I had left the car unlocked in the same parking lot where the school teacher had been murdered in the eighties and was inspired to write about it."

SHARON WALLER KNUTSON has published most recently in Verse-Virtual, Muddy River Review, Red Eft Review, Your Daily Poem, Trouvaille Review, and Spillwords. Kelsay Books has recently released her first full book collection, What the Clairvoyant Doesn’t Say and her seventh chapbook, Trials and Tribulations of Sports Bob, both available on Amazon.