To The Next Cold Case Killer

by Eric Forsbergh

To The Next Cold Case Killer
“The unlikely crime–fighter cracking decades–old murders ?
    A genealogist.”  Washington Post, July 22, 2018

When the milk eye of the moon is blind
to everyone but you,

when the raccoon in your garbage can
is Sergeant Lou collecting the cup
he saw you drinking from,

when you’re caged inside the story of
the California Killer on a chain,

when your brother, and your cousin, reveal
themselves online, pre-occupied, not noticing
you match their height, hair and ethnic mix,

when your curtains breathe open on their own,

when you won’t look up at night, because
the Pleiades sear pinholes in your retinas,

and when you’re startled by the shape of
a shark, a darkened cruiser easing down your street,

when sweat drips like tracer bullets
to illuminate your every bruise, under
a scaffold sky of black and blue,

just when, after twenty-seven years, you thought
you’re free and clear, the DA’s filed for arrest.
She’s strung up your DNA.