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It was a very sad day

by Dennis Barone?

I didn't even know these people
and it's certain they never met one another.
Maybe it was the way the announcements were phrased
or the way they were laid out.
I mean Old Edie, Edie the Egg Lady
was squashed into this tight corner
and she was such a big lady.
She had just had
her teeth "fixed," but the dentist
gave her a set that kept her old
gap so that fans could recognize her.
She didn't even get to use them.
It didn't say which set she was buried in.
And then there was Chester C. Smith,
who I had never even heard of before,
but he was the last, the last
survivor of a police posse that killed
Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd in 1934.
Saddest thing though, more was said about
Floyd than about Smith. They went on
and on about "most wanted," "notorious,"
"cornered" ... But
all they said about Smith was that he
retired from the East Liverpool, Ohio
Police Department in 1957.
The day he died was the 50th anniversary of the
slaying of Floyd. Smith shot him dead
on his first try. They didn't say anything
like "Old One Shot Smith" or anything.
I've said more about him than they did.
But the saddest thing by far was
Richard Brautigan, 49; gained
fame in the '60s with off beat novels
I hadn't even thought about him in 49 years
and apparently neither had anybody else.
His body had been decomposing for two weeks
before some sheriff found it. I suppose
that sheriff is fated to die on the 50th
aniiversary of Brautigan's death.
Might be the only way that he'll be
remembered.
And that's why it was a sad day.


Exquisite Corpse?, 4(1-2)
January-February 1986