Our favorite set, the operating room, Our favorite plot, death by folly.
Poisoning by restaurant garnish. Livers brined in bourbon and burst.
The killing argument. The suicidal drive.
And Junior, the arsonist who set himself on fire.
As if we defy natural causes, predictable as gravity and night.
Claiming instead the flaming corpse, the surgeon with his impotent scalpel.
The Atreus and Usher of Coal Town, we lived and died by stories in that house.
Angela O'Donnell teaches English and American Literature at Loyola College in Baltimore, Maryland. Her poems have appeared in various publications, including RUNES, Hawaii Pacific Review, First Things, Windhover, Italian Americana, Xavier Review, Studio, and Riverwind. In 2003, she was a finalist for America Magazine's Foley Poetry Award.