Lizzie Borden took a hatchet,
because, in case you didn't catch it,
she didn't need that long a handle.
Sincerely yours, Dave Crandall
I’m not kind not humble not soft
I don’t need you to like me
I don’t need you to talk to me
I dont need you to smile
I don’t need you to cry either
Stay alert stay alert stay alert
You wont know who’s in front of you
Until the day comes
you think that I’ll forget everything?
VERY FUNNY
you think that i wont care ?
HAHAHA
You think that I’ll never notice?
STUPID
you think that i’ll stay blind forever ?
COMPLETE BULL
you think that I’ll leave before get to taste you back ? ??
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
STAY ALERT STAY ALERT
Everything i did for you
Is not enough
The sacrifice i bid for you
Is not enough
Everything I've been through
I'd do it again for you
Everything I've bled through
I'd do it again for you
The things that i would die for
Is not enough
The things they took my life for
Is not enough
Wanted me on the side walk
Fighting a psy-war
You are the one that i try for
is not enough...
Everything I've been through
I'd do it again for you
Everything I've bled through
I'd do it again for you
I stopped thinking about me
When i think about you
I stopped thinking about me
When i think about you
Everything I've been through
I'd do it again for you
Everything I've bled through
I'd do it again for you
Filicide is a thing most people
Would rather not think about.
And until this past month
Would rarely even talk of.
Now it’s on everyone’s mind.
They say there are “only” 150-200
Such cases a year in America,
But that doesn’t seem like only a few to me!
The fact 71% are committed by the mother
Also stays beneath the mainstream radar.
I guess we just don’t want to know,
But it’s right there in our face
In our myths and legends and personal stories
(I know I was intimidated by my mother
growing up, always aware she held the true
power and control in the home
and even some degree of omniscience,
and I’m no Sleeping Beauty or Snow White).
Just look at the number of children mothers kill
Before they are even born
(more than a million per year!).
Does that qualify as an epidemic?
An epidemic of what?
Confusion and convenience,
Anxiety and despair,
And above all selfishness.
After all motherhood
Is the ultimate act of selflessness
A doorway of no return.
Which reminds me of all those children.
Now that the sanctity of motherhood
Has been disgraced and debased
Are apple pie and baseball next?
(9/4/26)
Look into her eyes
See evil that tells only lies
See three lost souls
Strangled by a heart of coal
See her stares
As men watch with glares
Women watch with empathy
A woman deserving no sympathy
Women once picked the bear
As if any man would truly care
So isn't it ironically tough
Men will now pick the bear so rough
The truth is we all heard her
But only some see the truth in murder
But when she lost her way
Three children forever lost their day
Don't bother trying to lecture
I'm done with their lame conjecture
If it were my mom she'd be disowned
And if it was my wife divorced and left alone
Look into my eyes
And tell me when I'm saying lies
See the three lost souls
Strangled by a heart of coal
The door opens,
and there he stands.
Knife in hand,
searching the room
for his victim.
Heavy footsteps
rhythmically fall
on the cabin floor.
The stench of sweat
assaults my nose.
I whimper
beneath the bed,
praying that I will
not be noticed,
or my story will end.
There he was, lined up right in my sights
Nothing in my way, either left or right
Me, a Mexican Tarantula at the point of attack
My target, Donald Trump, who’d make a juicy snack
My mission approved by President Sheinbaum, no less
For me to destroy this irrational pest
Could I bring myself to gobble him down?
~ Find me buried on the White House lawn
The shadows are as yellow
As bloom as the grey
As dark as the meadow
As gloom as the wave
As light as the crow
Through drunken haze
And as white as the terror
When put to the chase
The sounds are as silent
As whispering as the trees
As loud as the tired
As quiet as the screams
As wailing as the leaf
Through highpitched ear’s screech
And as quiet as still
When the end meets the leech
The tastes are as bleak
As dull as the fruit
As sour as leaf
As honeyed as soot
As tangy as the peak
As sharp as the root
And so is the blade
I am no brute
The stenches are as honey
As sweet as the hay
As bland as the berry
As foul as the bay
As sour as dairy
Through the incense, heavy
And as sour as what’s underneath
When the dirt is no longer empty
The forest is harp
As metal as twigs
As hard as carp
As soft as sticks
Yet under my feet, sharp
And as such is my overwhelming belief
He - ‘ it ‘ won’t be missed, in the depths of a scarp
One day he'll be gone.
You'll say don't know where, nor care.
Even though by dawn
I'll have made you be the one
Who buried him under there.
Standing on a balcony
Out by the sea
The waves crash endlessly
Staring back at me
They listen and wait
Watching and pacing
Sharpening the blade
Constantly erasing
Their pain
Dolls line the walls
Familiar faces painted on
They weep for my soul
Praying that I’ll soon be gone
I jump as a rabbit
Ears up and listening
I listen to the pounding drum
Of his crimson dripping daggerling
The door cracks open
An iron odor sways
Through the twisted halls
And into my brain
Inhalation of sanguine
Exhale the question
Will I ever leave this home
That became quite an obsession
I’m the murderer’s apprentice
Willingly taken by his chain
Dishevelled and bloodied
But euphoric all the same
It’s far too late to save me
Snow came down hard
Harassing the roadside bar
Taking one more shot
Reminding himself, 'he was hot'
John proceeded to the lavatory
Without any worry
Mirror, he did reflect
No fear of the word 'reject'
Ventured into the night
Seeking a romantic sight
Reality stated hurtful fight
"Goodbye, my dear knight
Our relationship is dead,"
Wearing the pearls he bought, she said
Returning to the watering hole
Shivering and cold
Shocking we were told
Seductress commanded the stage
Half anyone's age
Protected inside a cage
Belting out a tune
Loving warmth came back soon
After being swooned
Patrons did say
Heating bill, owner electronically paid
When the tempting tease was done
She approached the admirer, looking for fun
As for the haunting past outside
Confirming someone had lied
And died
"Those pearls fit you right"
Stranger mentioned, eyes bright
"They are a little tight,"
Informed the songbird, preparing for a deathly fight
Confirming fan, a nut
She kicked them in the butt
Finding a cell
Lonely, I must tell
am district formulate jabber shakeout shuck snore southeastward strangle sunk was
tactfulness warfare
with inhuman
constrict your
expendable headmistress
noncritical nonradioactive
bombsight puff
leveling hippie
activism and
boundlessness beatniks
were receptor
to inducement
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always ballerina
trusting jazz
wallop the
alchemic turret
through spunky
foothold will
(Weekly Magnetic Poetry Challenge • August 10–16, 2026)
I warned you over and over not to do it
your blatant disregard for someone else
it was never in my nature to lose my cool
you knew exactly what you were doing
wasting the clock pretending to help out
tried as I might you ignored my request
instantly you pushed me over the edge
only able to see the most violent of red
any ounce or rational thought obliterated
I warned you politely and loudly pleaded
all I wanted was to be able to do my job
loud, proud, and filled with arrogance
maybe table all of the passive-aggressive
I will always get up and defend myself
Notoriety led to my Netflix documentary
Dear wife, I know you aim to please,
but I did not ask for antifreeze;
and so, if you don't mind, I think
I will pass on your proffered drink.
You've got a glimmer in your eye,
but I'm not ready, yet, to die.
I still have the keys to the car,
I'd better hit the gas and go far.
Using religious piety,
To spread hate in society,
Cancer masquerades, to destroy
Using every malignant ploy,
Spreading spite - feigning honesty,
Thriving well as a fallacy -
A wolf with warm deceptive eyes,
Charms one and all with its disguise.
Its rule is avid bigotry,
Feasting on the minority,
Spreading uncontrolled all-around,
All of compassion’s voice is drowned.
Breaking walls; tearing hearts apart;
Hateful seeds sown in every heart.
Muzzling dissent, playing a perilous game,
Fascism is this cancer’s treacherous name.
Copyright © by Crystal David John
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