The Only One Left: A Novel

I take my leave, walking tall

Knowing that I fooled them all

At sixty-nine, Virginia Hope

Wrote her nurse this little note

Thank you, dear, for saving me

Now it’s time to let you be

those big, blue eyes

“It wasn’t me,” Lenora said

Took her mother’s happy life

Stabbed her father with a knife

Hung her sister with a rope

At seventeen, Lenora Hope

But I did so desperately want someone to notice me, to see me, to understand me.

The last I see of them is my father and Lenora finally clasping hands as the front doors swing shut.