She was the neighbor girl—

my sister’s friend

and I chased them with a lead pipe

when I was young (all in good fun).

I never had romantic feelings for her

even though

she paraded through her parent’s living room

in nothing but

her camouflage underwear

I could see her cunt hairs

and we played video games together

then, she started dating a guy

and she married him

and he drank

and he beat her

until she divorced him

then, she became a divorce lawyer. She was very hard.

When I saw her again, she looked through me

years had passed, until I heard from my mother

who heard from her mother

that she had died, suddenly.

She was leaving the courtroom

and fell.

She hit her head

and never regained consciousness.

Her mother was an atheist, a Christian, a Buddhist, and then a Jew.

When I went over to their house as a kid

we had to recite the Jewish prayer

Her husband drank beer and went to a sound-proof room in his mind

He had learned this practice

from her stint in Buddhism

When they retired and left the neighborhood

he broke his neck

falling down some stairs

and she got cancer of the anus.

They turned to Christianity

but the devil got them in the end.