Tuesday, October 24, 2017

DMC: "The Red Clapboard House" by Michelle Heidenrich Barnes

The following is a found poem based on this New York Times article.

          – for Cindy, Thomas, Bonnie, and Albert

May 5, 1977
shortly before 9 o'clock this morning
            Bonnie was always asking the time . . .
the bodies were found

4 children
apparently stabbed in their beds
            "I have to get home."
sometimes difficult to deal with

38 years old—a ladies man
who wore hip clothes and tried to act young
            "I can't be late."
different after his second wife left him

A member of Local 137
unable to find employment
            "My father will be very angry."
then killed himself with a shotgun

An official said, "He was a friend of all of us.
We're shocked but we can't comment."

© 2017 Michelle Heidenrich Barnes. All rights reserved.

Click HERE to read this month's interview with Carrie Clickard. Her DMC challenge is to write a poem about a person, place, or thing that spooked you as a child.

Post your poem on our October 2017 padlet. While some contributions will be featured as daily ditties this month, all contributions will be included in a wrap-up celebration this Friday, October 27th, and one lucky participant will win a personalized copy of her enchanting new picture book from Holiday House:


  1. :( Sad and scary and horrifying. Did you know this family, Michelle?

  2. It's probably unfair of me to post something like this and then just leave it hanging there with no explanation. This happened on the street where I grew up. I was 10 and remember walking past all the news media on my way home from school. For my parents' sake, I want to be sure and mention that I did not grow up in a rough neighborhood — it was a friendly, mild-mannered, suburban area with kids, and block parties, and good local schools. Just goes to show bad stuff can happen anywhere! Although I knew the name of the family who lived in the only red house on the street, I did not know them personally. Surprisingly, the impact on my childhood was minimal. It just lurked in the background like a ghost story.

  3. Yes, it was unfair. I'm glad to hear your explanation, Michelle. I did imagine that Bonnie was a classmate (the time reference). How terrible for you and the neighborhood and for those children. Your poem is compelling, perhaps one that's universal in that bad things happen, and we need to remember the victims. I read it multiple times, feeling the horror and the sadness, too.

  4. Events like this have serious impacts on childhood, so it's valid to write about them and share them. It keeps our senses as children's writers sharpened when we write about the hard realities of childhood. Thanks for sharing Michelle...and explaining.

  5. I shivered but it really was more tragic than anything. The way you wrote it made it creepy! I'm glad it didn't scar your childhood.

  6. Hi Michelle, I know this was hard for you to share, but I'm glad you did. It's chilling and real, and I think this version really works.

  7. Tragic and beautifully structured, Michelle. Ditto what Liz said.

  8. Beautifully written, Michelle. While tragedies involving children have always made me sad (of course), they're especially haunting now that I have a young child of my own. I'll send a prayer up for the children in your poem today.

  9. Horrifying -- those poor kids! I hope that we can find a way to keep these tragedies from happening.

  10. Beautifully rendered but so hard to read. Thanks for sharing this, Michelle.

  11. Very effective poem, Michelle. It's hard to say that I like it, but I appreciate the way you interspersed Bonnie's words within the verses. It makes an eerie collage. Sad, but well done.

  12. Thank you, everyone, for such sensitive and thoughtful comments. xo

  13. What an incredibly sad stoeu. How frightening for you and did ypu realize at that moment it was innocence ended? I remember when I heard that Richard Speck murdered student nurses.

  14. Wow, haunting memory, Michelle. Thanks for sharing it.

  15. That's quite a spook, Michelle–and then some too. I read the article along with your poem. Tragic event; biting and strong poem. My response, it happens everywhere, but what we do and don't do helps and doesn't help our community and society.

  16. Heartbreaking. So spare what you did here...just heartbreaking. We must remember that we never know what the children in our care and circles have seen and know and wonder and feel. Hugs. xx