Good Neighbors Make Good Fences

Good Neighbors Make Good Fences

The tenant no one knew next door

Was burying bodies beneath his floor,

Tortured and butchered a number of boys,

Kept to himself, made little noise,

Doing his thing behind that wall.

The college student down the hall,

Whose pregnancy, somehow unseen,

Went full term, and seemed so serene,

Till the infant turned up in the bin

And news crews started rolling in.

Afterwards interviews make clear

Why no one noticed the obvious here.

'He was a quiet guy, polite,'

They say. 'Nice girl. She seemed...all right.'

Paying attention now makes sense

At a distance of indifference.

The neighbors all say they were good,

Not to disparage the neighborhood.

'Good neighbors,' I add, 'Even fun,'

So none suspects I was not one.

                                                            KLK

                                                            11/17/05