Murder City Challenge Entry 1
Jennifer Nielsen responded to my challenge to songwriters and poets with a poem. Hers is a spare reworking of Bowden’s prose—she remains more true to the source than not. I think the result is to demonstrate just how musical Bowden’s language is. The meter, the phrasing, the attitude—it cries out to poetry and says “take me, too!” Nielsen heard that cry and responded with this:
Bowden’s Murder City Choice
what would you do?
given the same choice.
i’d kill to get in the gang.
i’d put on high heels
perfume,
pick up the guitar,
go through the wire.
i’d open the bottle
sniff the glue.
i’d say
tell me
the lovers lose…
Enough of my hijacking. Go, read the whole thing.
