Beauty Queen

At early age, she took the stage –
with her mother as her guide,
such poise and grace with an angel’s face
and a talent none denied.

Critics claimed that the stage was stained
with a lack of moral form –
that to spark appeal wearing rouge and heels
shouldn’t be a youngster’s norm.

But her mom was rife with a model’s life
and before, when just a teen –
she got her start when she made the chart
as a beauty-pageant queen.

Her girl was blessed with the same success,
winning accolades galore –
by the age of three, it was plain to see
what the future had in store.

On a Christmas Eve, after taking leave
from a day of family cheer,
it was off to bed for a sleepy-head,
hoping Santa would appear.

But as they slept, a monster crept
to the room of JonBenét –
without a sound, she was gagged and bound –
then the girl was whisked away.

Her empty bed left a sense of dread
and a search was put in place,
they yelled her name, but she never came –
she was gone without a trace.

A ransom note that the stranger wrote
later proved to be a ruse –
a scripted veil just to hide his trail
and to cover any clues.

From door-to-door on every floor,
to the spots a girl might stray –
they’d mount a hunt from back to front,
with no sign of JonBenét.

Dad pressed on ‘till the break of dawn –
to a room they seldom used,
on a concrete floor where the night before,
a girl had been abused.

He hit the light and the morbid sight
of a form beneath a sheet,
was a six-year-old laying still and cold,
with the tape still on her feet.

He kneeled to claim her tiny frame
and he hugged his lifeless doll –
consumed by grief and disbelief,
as the tears began to fall.

When word got out, all the pomp and clout
couldn’t save the family name –
when the cops would fail to detect a trail,
there was no one else to blame.

It’s a mystery that remains to be –
an event that’s yet unsolved,
an endless quest to enact arrest
of the one or ones involved.

But the search ensues as the famous clues
are passed on to present day –
‘till the truth comes out and removes all doubt
of who murdered JonBenét.