I’m going blow this case wide open,
I’m going to tear down the false front,
reveal what’s hidden.
People are talking all over town,
they can’t stop talking about it,
happened in broad daylight,
for all to see.
They sense a dirty time is upon us.
Lied to.
Spit upon.
We wonder how can they do this.
They did.
In front of everybody and got away with it,
they’re still getting away with it.
So clever,
and they have it,
the power,
the power to cover it all up,
the power to make us believe fairy tales,
the power to make nations dance to their tune.
She was going to blow the case wide open,
she was going to report the real story,
the unbelievable truth,
but they got to her too.
They fixed it.
They ended it.
They stopped it.
And Dorothy is no more.
Booze, a bottle of pills, an overdose,
suicide they say or death by misadventure.
Allen Forrest is a Canadian writer and graphic artist for literary publications and books, the winner of the Leslie Jacoby Honor for Art at San Jose State University’s Reed Magazine, and who’s Bel Red landscape paintings are part of the Bellevue College Foundation’s permanent art collection.