Haunt Me (Heartbreaker Duet #2)

Eden’s Poetry

YOU PEOPLE

Yellow lights behind frosted glass

Tinted silver-blue with col d

Houses along the snow-white banks of streets

The same streets that will be drowned

In orange leaves come autumn

Good people live in this suburb of New England

Good people with Christmas lights on their lawn

Good people who go to church or to yoga

And send their kids to private schools.

Good people who met a good man every day

At his work, at gatherings, at social events.

Good people, religious people

Talked to him and didn’t notice that something was wrong

Didn’t ask him if he had a girl trapped in his house

Why would they? All they cared about was appearances

He was well-dressed and gave them a lot of money

A lot of money

And they loved that

That good man with a lot of money

So they asked no questions—didn’t wonder why he bought

Girly things at the store or why there was always a light

At the upstairs window. Why would they care, anyway?

I mean, they were good people, but

I guess they weren’t that good.

I guess they weren’t good people after all

If all they cared about was taking his money and asking no questions

And he wasn’t a good man either,

Of course, so all in all, maybe that’s why he had so many friends

In the community, so many people to do his bidding, to cover his tracks

To keep silent, to agree with his beliefs about what’s allowed

And what’s not. He wasn’t a good man at all, and now I think

All those good people who took his money might have been the same as he.

There will be days when I can’t stop

The images from rushing into my head

Images of that gun, of his face—

There are going to be days whe n

I can’t get out of bed.

Will you be there on those days? You, good people?

One person can make the difference, yet not one of you

Ever asked the right questions. Not one of you

Ever cared about anything else

But your ‘rules’ and his money.

And he had a lot of both.

You people.