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Andrew Kehoe, Who Murdered Nellie Price Kehoe, His Wife, Before Killing 38 Pupils, Five Adults, and Himself at Bath Community School, Michigan on May 18th, 1927, Makes a Confession to Nellie
Sweetheart, I want to say that
you were the start
of it all. If you hadn't died,
38 children would still
be alive. I wouldn't have had to
hamstring our horses and burn the barn down.

Think about that.

You were the last thing
stopping me.
You were the mooring rock,
weak as you were,
the day you came home from the hospital
for nerves.

I hated you for it, know-nothing.

Be glad it was quick:
a little blood.
And off I went.

Nellie Price, Whose Family Omitted "Kehoe," Her Married Name, From Her Headstone After Her husband Murdered Her then 43 Other People at Bath Community School, Michigan, on May 18th, 1927, Addresses the Dynamics of Marital Power
I was tucked in the earth, a kernel of corn,

the gas poured in his Fordson Model F,
which sparked the rusting engine.

Power, power
to split the solid earth,

to set the corroded machinery in motion.

I never thought of what I did
as power:

a hearty dinner,
starched white shirt,
dirt-free home,
and morning-fed chickens.

It was my duty, my oath,
as I had sworn to die the day
I cleaved my screaming mother.

He didn't have to kill me.

I didn't have to stay, but did.

If you are shadowing my headstone,
lower your arms and gather a little ruin,
if you please.