NaPoWriMo 2013 Day 28 ~ Varied Definitions of "It"

“Nothing is more deadly than a deserted, waiting street.” 
― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

Early morning intuition opened the front door

at the sound of a barking dog to discover

an uneasy feeling justified.

Crime stepped from the shadows

propped on an uncle’s shoulders

forcing each one of my family to face it.

No one could decide on what “it” was.

Mama said, “It was that damn boy

crawling across the night to bring

his evil to our doorstep.”

Dad said, “It breaks my heart.

He is my brother, but I must turn him in.”

My little sister said, “It was so scary to see

that white t-shirt come out of the dark.”

I kept my thoughts to myself.  The “it”

tormenting me had risen from my nightmares

and was eating toast and drinking milk.

We all thought those tail lights disappearing

over the hill would be our freedom from the

thing we couldn’t agree on, but our lives

weren’t free of the unexpected lurking in the night.

Two evenings later on a quiet, waiting street

peace was undone by shuffling feet, badges

and guns demanding we surrender a man already gone.

Rattled, angry and fearful each one of us was trying

again to define the thing that unsettled us, but

the only thing we could agree on was the hope

the “it” an uncle brought to us would never return.

©Susie Clevenger 2013

At Real Toads Kerry has us celebrating Harper Lee's birthday by taking a quote from her novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" and using it as inspiration for our written work. A Birthday In April ~ Harper Lee

I actually got to meet Mary Badham who played Scout in the movie version of Harper Lee's book, "To Kill a Mockingbird."