Agnes Speaks Out

       Imagining a letter from Agnes responding to Ron Miller’s
       quote: “… if there’s an arch-villain in the story, it’s probably
       Agnes Carpenter” (said in a movie review of The Karen
       Carpenter Story for The Mercury News, 1989)

I did not kill my daughter.
That’s what I told that reporter,
Barry Morrow, and that’s what
I’m telling you. Tabloids. Some
gossipy fool always blames
the blameless parents. Everything
I did was for my children. My husband
and I worked our hands to the bone
to pay for drums, pianos, music lessons—
whatever they needed. If you ask me, stress
murdered Karen—all that fame, sudden wealth,
and a worthless husband who just wanted
her money. Who knew she had an “eating disorder?”
People say I drove her crazy. Wrong!
I taught her to keep a clean house, and some dumbass
says I passed along my “obsession for neatness”
to her. And that psychiatrist making it sound like
Karen had to compete with her brother for my love.
Ridiculous!
Karen was just the better singer.
Richard was the musical genius.
Everybody knew it.
Those are the facts.
Karen knew I loved her.
Why do they all think
I needed to tell her?
That’s not the way
we do things in this family.

       First appeared in The Yearbook of the Poetry Society of South Carolina 2023