The Demise of Jenny By Diane Elayne Dees

The Demise of Jenny

Everybody wished that you were dead.
Alice, Niki, Tina, Bette, and Shane
had reason to inflict you with great pain,
or strangle you, or shoot you in the head.
Instead, producers, desperate for a spinoff,
concocted one last tacky scheme to thrill us,
and floated you in the pool, just like Joe Gillis
(though for viewers, it was hardly a big payoff).
Who did it? No one knows, and no one cares.
There had to be an end to all your drama;
we were sick to death of hearing about your trauma,
and all your steamy, twisted, doomed affairs.
Plus, any ending would have challenged reason:
The writers murdered you in the third season.

Diane Elayne Dees’s poetry has been published in many journals and anthologies. She is the author of the chapbook, Coronary Truth (Kelsay Books), and has two more chapbooks forthcoming. Diane, who lives in Covington, Louisiana, also publishes Women Who Serve, a blog that delivers news and commentary on women’s professional tennis throughout the world. Her author blog is Diane Elayne Dees: Poet and Writer-at-Large.