A Visitor

A woman left for work. Her child went to school. A latchkey kid, her daughter that day got straight home from school, aware of every rule to not let strangers in no matter what. A neighbor said a visitor she’d seen go to their apartment. He wore a smile and the common workman’s outfit that was green. All seemed okay; he went in for a while. No one saw the maintenance man leaving. It’s been surmised he left by the back door. The woman with a missing child is grieving. Her lovely daughter has been seen no more. Adults themselves by strangers have been tricked. So too was she whom the visitor picked. April 7, 2023 for Julia Ward's A Visitor Poetry Contest