The Gacy Murder House
Antieau Gallery, Royal St., New Orleans
Why is it so easy to admire this dollhouse
hidden in the corner of the gallery,
its rooms so tidy, well-lit, pinked
with flowers, ginghamed in patterns,
molding and frames as white
as white allows? Is it the respect
its artist had for the spaces
that make such places homey?
Its tasteful furnishings? The neatness
of design allowing us to overlook
skeletons lining the crawlspace
beneath its floorboards? Portraits
of killers, clown masks, saws, drills,
duct tape, bottles of rubbing alcohol
so conveniently idle with purpose.
Jack B. Bedell is currently a Professor of English at Southeastern Louisiana University, where he also serves as editor of Louisiana Literature and director of Louisiana Literature Press. His recent books are Elliptic (Yellow Flag Press), Revenant (Blue Horse Press), and Bone-Hollow, True: New and Selected Poems (Texas Review Press).View Chris Roberts-Antieau’s “John Wayne Gacy Murder House” dollhouse.
Header photo of retro dollhouse (not the Gacy Murder House) by Tomasz_Mikolajczyk, courtesy Pixabay.
