Now a violent change in tone, from lightness to a horror
poem, a sort of horror poem.
I am addicted to reading murder mysteries,
or whodunits as we call them, we aficionados.
And you can tell from the details in this poem
that they've come from reading murder mysteries.
I thought I would write a poem about the greatest
murderer of all, who will never be caught.
And this is called The Case of The.
Drinking the seconal dissolved in bourbon, stabbed in the fog,
shoved into quicksand, caught in the telescopic sight,
feeling a sudden pressure on the carotids from behind.
Scalped, buried, bombed, smothered in cellophane.
Another blow and another savage, fast, unreasoning.
In Amsterdam, Gary, Indonesia, Alabama, Budapest.
Perilous, perilous, the keeping of the human spirit.
Killed everywhere.
On the train, in the tomb, generosity.
At the racetrack, grace.
At the tiller , down the sewers, in the unguarded hospital room,
willingness.
In the London slum, on the plane, at the mountain
resort strength.
In the pew, on Golden Gate Bridge, affection.
Nowhere to hide.
Everywhere, everywhere someone is out looking for you.
One, with his mouth hung open to hear,
grunts huh after every statement.
Huh.
His prostate swells, blood pressure, bangs his head.
This country's gone to the dogs, and the hippies can go to.
And one pees 14 times a night, missing the bedpan
every other time.
Her false teeth clicking with malice,
she whispers, if you don't watch them every minute,
they steal you blind.
Are the passersby in collusion?
Did the victim deserve what he got?
The search for evidence goes on and on,
the light burns, the sirens whine, the long report says,
you only live once.
Fingerprints, autopsies, exhumations tell us
a great deal, but the shoes don't fit anyone we know.
As for the bodies, some were fair of face,
some had nothing to lose.
On the last page, the one-eyed witness, trapped by the DA,
drops his dreams and his lies.
His squirrel mouth opens, and he squeals all he knows.
The sun done it, coming up every damn morning like it does.