In a culvert they tracked her bundled
clothes: a muddied blouse,
stockings rent at the crotch,
one black shoe, its heel collapsed.
Elsewhere, somewhere are packed
naked body parts that fit her
description–pale, pale skin
underneath smothering clay.
The silence at home is
what her parents notice and say
to the news reporter when asked.
Her smile vanished months ago
fleeting towards eternity.
Still I yearned for some further
desecrated detail, unable to stop
myself, unable to let her go.