Tuesday, January 7, 2025

Pulp Fiction

It lives in a paperback,
the older the better,
with yellowed pages
brown at the edge.

It’s there that Mason,

Marlowe, and Spade

throw on trench coats

in the middle of the night

to track down a lead,

put a tail on a snitch.

 

A gunshot rings out

in the night, a lick

of hot yellow flame

disappearing into an alley.

 

There are cocktails

in a fancy lounge,

a conversation

with a fat man,

maybe a tryst

with the dame

after she’s given over

the stolen goods.

 

I look up from the page,

hoping the curious case

will never end.

That’s the nature

of deep-down sleuthing,

of solving a mystery.

That’s life.


~William Hammett



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