Antithesis, or Deliverer

of Darkness

by Pete Mladinic

Epitome of good and evil: the man and

woman took her into their home, and there

gave her a bed in a room, a table to sit at,

food and drink, a TV to watch, windows

to look out at trees in rural South Carolina,

took her in, so she didn’t have to sleep

against a brick wall, or under a trestle

or on a cot in a room cramped with cots,

took her in in exchange for taking plates

from a cupboard, setting the table,

her dusting, vacuuming, washing, drying

a help, as they to her, a great help, a roof

and walls, and trees in leaf in summer

off a front porch, till the turn, the downslide

hers into meth. With others the break in,

the taking of necklaces, bracelets, rings

from drawers, china from shelves, the man,

the woman from home to an ATM.

The car she and the three men stole

stopped on a gravel road.  They marched

the couple, who were not so old not to hear

birds in woods just off the gravel road.

They handed them shovels, made them dig

a ditch, and as they pled, buried them

alive. Payback for all your kindness.

Oh, it wasn’t her, it was the meth, made

her into someone she wasn’t. Someone

she wasn’t? Get real. What fairytale world

are you living? When she had nothing . . .

Yes, but killing her won’t bring them back.

Peter Mladinic’s fifth book of poems, Voices from the Past, is available from Better Than Starbucks Publications.

An animal rights advocate, he lives in Hobbs, New Mexico, United States.