The Aftermath

Bobbie Gentry and her one hit inspired this piece

The sun sweltered upon the swamp, upon the trees
It brought everybody to their metaphorical knees
Freddy Saxon was at the tender age of fourteen
During the summer that was intensely, immensely mean

He took a stroll down to the river's edge
It beat the need to sit down and vedge
There it was in deep with some reeds
Apparently, the body managed to succeed

Saxon saw it floating with the face down
It was somebody who might not have been found
Freddy grasped the ankle and pulled it to shore
The life was snuffed out running a month or more

Freddy saw it clutched in a tight fist
A piece of evidence a CSI would never miss
It was a blanket, blue, orange and partly black
Whatever was wrapped, it wasn't coming back

Freddy Saxon was shaken to his absolute core
A grandmother told him that story once before
Stillbirth and teenagers are a volatile mix
The sheltered community would surely nix

Them off the rolls and run them away from town
No, they would shotgun marry both those clowns
Freddy was a smart one, he had heard the story
Up the long river, a bridge existed with no glory

Off the truss jumped a boy named Billie
Into the water that was just dirty and chilly
The story had yet to float downstream
But the flower petals followed like a girl's dream

Freddy cried as he knew the truth
He thought back to the kissing booth
The young lady took a shine to his charm
But that only raised quite a bad alarm

He saw her kissing some older cad
Freddy wandered away without getting mad
Flash forward back to the present time
Here comes to the twist in this tearful rhyme

Freddy flipped over the corpse, he saw the face
It was the cad from that musical place
The cops came and the body was buried
Back to Choctaw Ridge, it was carried

You thought this story would end here
The meaning surreal and never truly clear
Only the body is what the authorities found
The blanket was missed like a stray in a pound

Freddy hit it away from prying eyes
Like any other, he'd keep secrets, he'd tell lies
A year or two went by and Freddy grew
He appeared on Choctaw Ridge from the blue

The girl was throwing flowers off the truss
He watched silently as she started to fuss
She missed Billie and the baby very, very much
He came up slowly and gave her a light touch

Shocked as can be as Freddy presented the wrap
Grasping it tightly, she would fall off the map
Freddy watched as she jumped off the side
The water and her body made the great collide

He knew he could be accused of a major crime
He couldn't escape the stigma, he couldn't do the time
Off the truss into the muddy and watery cold
A second bit of weird folklore would take hold

Nobody would ever know the entire tale
Some mystery would never make it go stale
Since then, very few have followed the path
It has stayed that way in the aftermath

Reviews

[Hello, Goodbye]

interesting narrative and great imagery as well

[Coyote Poetry]

You weaved a very good tale. I like how you set-up the story and make it stronger with each paragraph. A surprise ending to a outstanding story in your poem.
Coyote

[AngelAfterlife]

i love your vision in this poem... its very inspiring... I LOVE IT