The Detective Story

This is the religion of red,

The dream we all have dreamt

Night after night; the lithe fox

Cornered at last, making no move

To turn; the Unending Flight.

In these hypnotic pages lie

The Lost Will, the Thoughtless Dread.

We play the game that children play

With arrows; Prisoners Delight;

I-Spy; Snake-on-the-String.

This is the prearranged pursuit,

The secret savagery of gun.

All the old trappings of Effect:

Contested wills, strange visitors,

The night of fog upon the moor,

And stairways that approach the sea.

The classic villain does a trick

With knives; the baited heroine

Slowly advances to her Fate.

The stuff of Fear is symboled in

The massive doors; the cloaks;

The phials, the powders and the masks.