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***This is the nineteenth
in a never-ending series called BACKSTORY OF THE POEM where the Chris
Rice Cooper Blog (CRC) focuses on one specific poem and how the poet wrote
that specific poem. All BACKSTORY OF THE POEM links are at the end
of this piece.
Backstory of the Poem
“STILETTO
KILLER… A Surmise”
by Alexis Rhone Fancher
alexis@lapoetrix.com
www.alexisrhonefancher.com
Can you go through the step-by-step process of writing this poem
from the moment the idea was first conceived in your brain until final form?
I read about the
murder in an online newspaper, shortly after it occurred. The story intrigued
me and kept bouncing around in my head. I wrote several pages of notes, many of
which ended up in some form in the final poem. There were six drafts of
this poem, written over several months, before I was satisfied. (Above Left, Title Photo - Self portrait of Alexis Rhone Fancher in March of 2018)
Above Right: Photo of of a news clip of Ana Trujillo)
Where were you when you started to actually write the
poem? And please describe the place in great detail. 99% of the time I am writing at my desktop computer
in my studio. This poem was no exception. I also do all revisions on the
computer.
What month and year did you start writing this poem? March, 2014 (Right: Self-portrait of Alexis Rhone Fancher in November of 2014)
What do you want readers of this poem to take from this poem? That 1.) under the right circumstances, anyone can
murder, and that 2.) Women are always losers in Texas.
Which part of the poem was the most emotional of you to write
and why? "In that green
dress she looked like Christmas.” I kept seeing Ana, covered in Alf’s
blood, all red and green - Christmas colors. Chilling. (Left: Ana Trujillo in custody. Photo attributed to the Harris County Sheriff's Office)
Has this poem been published before? And if so where? “Stiletto Killer” was first published in 13 Myna
Birds, http://13myna.
blogspot.com in 2014. It also appears in my most recent,
full-length collection, ENTER HERE, (KYSO Flash Press, 2017). https://www.amazon.com/Enter-Here-Alexis-Rhone-Fancher/dp/0986270377/
Anything you would like to add? This poem is my interpretation of
actual events. Not what actually occurred. The only people who know that are
Ana and Alf, and Alf’s not talking...
I am a news junkie.
Human interest. Murder stories especially fascinate me. And this one, in which
a tiny, Hispanic woman in Houston Texas stabbed her Swedish professor boyfriend
to death with one of her stiletto heels, stabbing him 30 times, was as dramatic
as they come.
I do research for my
poems, especially the ones about actual events. Often I have pages and pages of
notes and quotes. The poem is lurking within them, a distillation. Facts become
commentary in my hands. And commentary becomes, in this case, outrage. “Women
are always losers in Texas” is an observation, not only about Ana Trujillo, but
about how the court system in Texas favors men. (I watched a friend go through
a divorce in Texas, and witnessed her getting royally screwed, first hand.) That’s
the line in the poem that gets the most attention. Maybe because it has the
ring of truth.
The poem weaves
“facts” about the murder with my “fantasy” about how it went down. When I read
“Stiletto Killer” at poetry events, it always gets an intense response.
STILETTO
KILLER… A Surmise
“She
told me if anybody screwed with her they’d get a stiletto heel in the eye,”
-
her former apartment manager told the TV news.
Alf
and Ana drank tequila at the club until closing.
Ana
wore a tight, green dress. Alf said she looked like a whore.
Back
at the apartment, the neighbors heard screams.
“The
defense will prove she was a battered woman,” her lawyer told the press.
She
was too short when the stilettos came off but her feet ached.
She
had to stand on tiptoe to reach him, for Christ’s sake.
Women
are always losers in Texas.
Ana
alleged: “He cursed in Swedish when he beat me.”
She’d
read Swedes beat their women in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
In
the early morning hours, Ana stabbed her lover thirty one times.
The
stiletto heel fused to her fist.
When
the police arrived Ana was covered in blood.
In
that green dress she looked like Christmas.
(CNN) -- It may have been a
vicious murder or the unintentional result of a
lover's
quarrel. Either way, the death of a Texas college professor stands
out
for the weapon the killer allegedly used: one of her own stilettos.
First
published in The Mas Tequila Review, 2015
Alexis Rhone Fancher
is published in Best American Poetry 2016, Verse Daily, Plume,
Rattle, Diode, Pirene’s Fountain, Tinderbox, Nashville Review, Wide
Awake, Poets of Los Angeles and elsewhere. She’s the author of four
poetry collections; How I Lost My Virginity To Michael Cohen and other
heart stab poems, (2014), State of Grace: The Joshua Elegies, (2015),
Enter Here, (2017), and Junkie Wife, (2018). Her photographs are
published worldwide. A multiple Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net
nominee, Alexis is poetry editor of Cultural Weekly. (Right: Alexis Rhone Fancher in December of 2017. Photo attributed to Angela Cohan)
001 December 29, 2017
Margo
Berdeshevksy’s “12-24”
002 January 08, 2018
Alexis
Rhone Fancher’s “82 Miles From the Beach, We Order The Lobster At Clear Lake
Café”
003 January 12, 2018
Barbara
Crooker’s “Orange”
004 January 22, 2018
Sonia
Saikaley’s “Modern Matsushima”
005 January 29, 2018
Ellen
Foos’s “Side Yard”
006 February 03, 2018
Susan
Sundwall’s “The Ringmaster”
007 February 09, 2018
Leslea
Newman’s “That Night”
008 February 17, 2018
Alexis
Rhone Fancher “June Fairchild Isn’t Dead”
009 February 24, 2018
Charles
Clifford Brooks III “The Gift of the Year With Granny”
010 March 03, 2018
Scott
Thomas Outlar’s “The Natural Reflection of Your Palms”
011 March 10, 2018
Anya
Francesca Jenkins’s “After Diane Beatty’s Photograph “History Abandoned”
012 March 17, 2018
Angela
Narciso Torres’s “What I Learned This Week”
013 March 24, 2018
Jan
Steckel’s “Holiday On ICE”
014 March 31, 2018
Ibrahim
Honjo’s “Colors”
015 April 14, 2018
Marilyn
Kallett’s “Ode to Disappointment”
016 April 27, 2018
Beth
Copeland’s “Reliquary”
017 May 12, 2018
Marlon
L Fick’s “The Swallows of Barcelona”
018 May 25, 2018
Juliet
Cook’s “ARTERIAL DISCOMBOBULATION”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/05/18-backstory-of-poem-arterial.html
019 June 09, 2018
Alexis Rhone Fancher’s “Stiletto Killer. . . A Surmise”
Alexis Rhone Fancher’s “Stiletto Killer. . . A Surmise”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/06/19-backstory-of-poem-stiletto-killer.html
020 June 16, 2018
Charles
Rammelkamp’s “At Last I Can Start Suffering”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/06/20-backstory-of-poem-at-least-i-can.html
021 July 05, 2018
Marla
Shaw O’Neill’s “Wind Chimes”
022 July 13, 2018
Julia Gordon-Bramer’s
“Studying Ariel”
023 July 20, 2018
Bill Yarrow’s “Jesus
Zombie”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/07/23-backstory-of-poem-jesus-zombie-by.html
024 July 27, 2018
Telaina Eriksen’s “Brag
2016”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/07/24-backstory-of-poem-brag-2016-by.html
025 August 01, 2018
Seth Berg’s (It is only
Yourself that Bends – so Wake up!”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/08/25-backstory-of-poem-it-is-only.html
026 August 07, 2018
David Herrle’s “Devil In
the Details”
