Murder Ballads: American Crime Poems

Murder Ballads is a collection of American crime poems, covering subjects such as The Black Dahlia, the Kingsbury Run Torso Murders, and the life of Celia Rose. ...All my selves watch from the wings, Locked in cells that see no morning. Speak we now cryptic, coptic, Subdued, erotic; but the doctor Has drained the chemistry set, And the nurses smoke my cigarettes. Every word they drop in passing Is a bullet whose autobiography No one should have to read...