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Vanilla Killer - trigger warning

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The poem is based on the case of serial killer nurse Lucy Letby (described by police as 'vanilla') who was convicted of the murder of seven babies and the attempted murder of six others. The lines in italics are taken directly from Letby's diaries and notes recovered from her house by police.

Another shift ends. I'm dead on my feet. Too shagged to even eat. The word leads (inevitably) to you... I slipped the timesheets from work today. Another incident occurred... Sweetie, please be there, and say you care. I loved working alongside you today. We work so well. We always do. Although the unit's turned to hell. I slipped the noose of guilt today... Message me. Text far into the dark tunnel of night. I'm nursing white wine, tipping the chalice of poison to your lips and mine. Wrapped in my butterfly-beautiful blanket fantasies of you spiral into butterfly-fragile flight. Never Greener glows beside me, a hell-coal on the bedspread. I lose myself like a flower pressed between pages and dream of crash teams, resus, pagers bleeping, summoning you to me. Your manly medic's hands...feeling them, feeling me. Feeling my skin and breathing in the vanilla perfume I mist myself in. I'll never have children or marry I'll never know what it's like to have a family The night lights soon soothe them to sleep. I emit Lucyferian light, the nightshade lamp that will light your love - that spark in my days and nights of dark - stealthily unveiling a frailer shade and shroud of night. Named after dawn's vanilla light - my parents' adored antidote to night, their brightest morning star. Their brand of love smothered the life-light in me. Took the luminescence out of Lucy. And now how they'll all be made to pay. I am an awful person I pay every day for that Aww the sweetness sleeping, their moth-soft breaths flickering as light and life are seeping... Their little eyes are peeping as I'm cooing and peek-a-booing. Lullabies soon soothe them to sleep. Baby L is a frail, pink-puckered flower, mouth a sweet petal, neck a tender tulip. Tiny fingers cling like a vine to mine. My small hour hypoglycaemic hands may slip a vial or a phial: sweet nectar of insulin. My love, there will be nothing on file. I AM EVIL I DID THIS I don't deserve to live In the midst of a long lonely night shift, quiet and dark as the grave, it's your love and attention I crave. Sweetheart, please know this. But why are the nicest guys always married? - 2.4 kids and a wife they'll never leave. I'm lissom, lynx-lithe and twenty five - an altogether better prospect and f**k. Is it your fingers caressing my breasts I can feel? Or is it their little mouth-petals nipping my nipples? Oh the confusion and fusion of pleasure and pain. And here it goes again... Once more the slaughtering sea rushes in on me, washing over me again and again. It's become a drug of allure like you are, like this crashing, crushing love. I see scarlet waves foaming at their little lips, wonder how I've arrived once more on this deadly shore... I can't do this anymore HELP ME My soft-soled shoes creep quietly along the tiled floor at this unholy hour, as I tiptoe in to deliver my last-stand brand of care to these tiny soft-souled ones. I'll be more than a mother. I'll smother them with love. Angelic and perfect they are, doll-like in deathly repose. Baby O has a face like a rose. Sweetie, there is nothing on file. Tenderly, tenderly I lean over the perspex prison of this incubator, teary with throat-choking love. Glance at the ward clock to note the time. I can't remember if he's theirs or mine. Gently, gently I touch syringe tip to skin flower-fair. There's nothing more freeing than air... I killed them I don't know if I killed them Maybe I did It's Baby I's first anniversary and I'm logging in on Facebook because I'm there and I care and I need to see if my little one's parents remember and care as much as me. I sent them a condolence card, it's hoarded and stored on my phone and signed with love from Lucy. I didn't do anything wrong. Now there's all this. I only loved too much and sent them to sleep with a kiss.

Copyright © | Year Posted 2023




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Date: 1/27/2024 1:29:00 PM
There is not the width of a hypodermic needle Between that animal..And the scum that Engineered the 1st off the plan-demic and the So called medical panacea that was being Worked on since ( 2011) yes 2011.! It was not Done in 6 months ( forget it people !!!) they knew Quite a lot about adverse recations..' Let that Register, I see the outrage in comments below About this piece of filth..' What about the others ?????????????????????????????????????????????
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Date: 1/10/2024 3:48:00 PM
Chilling write Charlotte. A fabulous telling of Lucy's story. Congratulations! :)
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Date: 1/4/2024 12:53:00 PM
Very graphic poetry nicely done.. Congratulations on your placement in the contest..
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Date: 10/16/2023 4:24:00 PM
Can't comment on the write I couldn't get through it, although it was captivating what I read...truly horrifying what evil can do. There was a case here in Canada of a nurse who killed elderly patients with injections of insulin. Truly can't wait until evil is gone for good.
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Maverick Avatar
Joe Maverick
Date: 2/29/2024 2:50:00 PM
Trudeau.!!!
Date: 9/25/2023 9:03:00 AM
Excellent writing
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Date: 9/23/2023 4:29:00 PM
Do you remember a poem from 2012 called "the skeleton tree" you commented on it.
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Date: 9/18/2023 5:47:00 AM
Poignancy personified - a morphed prosimetrum - you're one of the few who keep me rapt in a long write.
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Date: 9/17/2023 4:54:00 PM
Boy you sure got into the head of this lunatic. Great dark writing, Charlotte
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Date: 9/16/2023 8:38:00 AM
A great poem you gift us about a nurse, a horrible tragedy and evil. Exceptional poetry, imho. A most powerful poem this is... You are indeed a true poet.. A fav... God bless you.
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Date: 9/12/2023 8:11:00 AM
A truly shocking murderer, how anyone can kill, let alone kill innocent babies is beyond belief and I wish there was the death penalty over here.. I won't focus on that, I will focus on your poem. This is disturbing poetry, as you delve into a troubled and tormented mind.. You take the reader into the darkness and sickness of the individual who is so deluded tries to justify their actions due to a lack of love an misunderstanding.. Impactful poetry as always from your poetic pen...
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Date: 9/11/2023 7:48:00 PM
I'm sure I saw this on the news or net. It's not new except men do it with guns from place to place. I tried to read your feelings while you read hers. The mixed emotions flew in and out as i wondered how to read this. Is it poetry of is it a story?
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Date: 9/11/2023 7:20:00 PM
Its interesting how their thoughts are so twisted and so deluded. I think i might Have seen this story on netflix? Not sure. I need to read about this. I used to be more hooked on killr documentaries, just because it always makes me intrigued to understand how and why, and their thought process. You wrote this in a seamless manner and is really good. One that drew me in from the first line. Loves it
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Empress Avatar
Ink Empress
Date: 9/11/2023 7:29:00 PM
Omg i just read about it, she doesnt even look anything like evil wow! This gave me chills, thanks for sharing i ddnt know this story before i think, shocking. How evil has no specific face
Date: 9/11/2023 12:35:00 PM
Seven babies and counting, helped along by a useless Trust, who all seemed to do a runner before the case got to court. Letby, really had a free run at this hospital. The inquiry will highlight what every inquiry highlights. ''Lessons will be learned.''
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Tom Woody
Date: 9/11/2023 3:25:00 PM
The truth is serial killing, and crime in general, is unpreventable. Evil finds a way...
Puddifoot Avatar
Charlotte Puddifoot
Date: 9/11/2023 2:07:00 PM
yeah how many times do we hear that "lessons will be learned"? only they never are...
Date: 9/11/2023 11:38:00 AM
A really scary read Charlotte. Riveting though, I couldn't stop reading it. Very well done. Glad its fiction !!! Engrossing.
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Charlotte Puddifoot
Date: 9/11/2023 2:11:00 PM
well it's actually based on a true case, and many of the details in the poem are factual..glad the poem held your attention, it is rather long!
Date: 9/11/2023 11:22:00 AM
Inside the mind of a serial killer? I always find it to be of interest how illicit and forbidden sex is frequently a compadre of murder. The mind is a tricky thing. It can accuse or excuse. Sometimes it does both. Devastating read
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Charlotte Puddifoot
Date: 9/11/2023 2:13:00 PM
is it? i wouldn't know, i'm so vanilla and virginal, as evidenced by my star sign lol

Book: Shattered Sighs