TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

Harper Lee had put Truman—

Right in the middle of her novel

As the young weird kid “Dill”

Fictionalizing the Deep South

Then it was Truman Capote’s turn—

To put Harper and him on the

Santa Fe Super Chief all the

Way to Garden City Kansas

That’s where he wrote it—

There in a motel with Harper’s

Help and William Shawn with

The New Yorker’s funding

Work nonfiction-wise for a

Kansas kid growing up in a

Small town like Emporia

It’s been over 50 years—

Since the Holcomb homicides

And Kansas will never ever

Be the same since then

William Allen White’s—

Placid little college town

Somehow stands still today

Like a Midwestern noir novel