If the poem is his, Brett Gardiner of Winnipeg has accomplished something rare. An excerpt of a poem that is alleged to be his was published by a major daily newspaper.

How? Write a love poem that becomes central to the biggest mass murder in modern Ontario history.

What’s potentially damaging for Gardiner isn’t the sentimental content of the poem, but rather a line at the end of it, which connects its author to the Bandidos, the world’s second-largest outlaw biker club, behind only the Hells Angels.

The poem was allegedly sent on April 5, 2006 from Kellestine’s farmhouse by someone who identified himself as “PROSPECT BANDIDO BULL MANITOBA.”…

The poem has a decidedly unbikerish tone, continuing, “I held back whimpers as I watched you go/ An event that would lead to everlasting sorrow

“I fought back emotions as I watched you depart/ I didn’t think I’d lose my only sweetheart.”

Is that unbikerish? I thought ‘tough on the outside, soft on the inside’ was the basis of a biker’s sex appeal, yes?

(via Sean Dixon)