NaPoWriMo - Day Nine - A Noir Poem

Badge 1247 responding.
Hollywood, California, 1947
fame holds hands with corruption
and those pretty dames
are often only pretty on the outside.


It's a cut-throat business
Hollywood.
A girl would do anything
to see her name in lights.
A man would do anything to see her in the dark.


The crime scene is ringed by palms
swaying in the crisp spring breeze
bright yellow tape fluttering
around her body--stark contrast
a portrait of life and death.


Officers stand around, pale white
faces stark testimony to the vulgarity
that lies sprawled indignified in crisp
green grass -- a bloody smile
across her delicate throat.


A single red stiletto lies nearby
Camouflaging the blood pooled inside
Evidence is gathered,
a single tube of Sin City Red lipstick
a stage pass to Paramount draped over naked breasts.


Cigarette butts litter the ground around her
Neon lights begin to come up in the distance
Crowds have begun to gather behind
the police sawhorses set up around the perimeter
all anxious to learn the who, the why, the how.


Woolworth suits gather in the bullpen as 
whispers about serial killers and tragedy
The Black Dahlia haunts
everyone these days.

Inspired by LA Noire, produced by Rockstar Games
This case is highly influenced by the murder of Jeanne French. Jeanne French was a 45-year-old army nurse who was discovered stripped and stomped to death early in the morning in February 1947. The case was never officially solved, but was supposedly linked to the infamous "Black Dahlia" murder because the initials "B.D." were written with lipstick on French's dead body and the murder took place just weeks after the murder of Elizabeth Short (Black Dahlia), which also took place in 1947 Los Angeles.



Support Michelle Fundraiser (Help Pay for Medical Expenses)