In homage to the “Queen of crime” and her masterpiece which has haunted the poet since the time he read it, in 1967.
Take me to the rock please.
Let God regard us as a zoo there
Oakwood Station
Near to Stickelhaven
Then to sea with
A ferryman whose loopy name
Was Freddy Narracott
In a cramped and choppy boat
He has another name you know
Of course you know.
Old photographs
In black and white
Smeared by the paws of years
We are going to...
We are all going to
Be stretched and lost
That cold feeling clutching the heart-
If I could but repeat repent
Repent repeat repeat after me
Cannot you say sorry at all?
Has the poodle got your soul?
In a house free of standard ghosts
No Sheridan Le Fanu boasts
Rather whitewashed walls
Not dark corners for appearance' sake
But meander meander
White bloodless ghosts
Perjured Landor
Every feature clear and distinct
As though it were yesterday
She hadn't seemed real any more
Three years on she died
There is feeding time
And last orders
Time is not quantity, time is grace and worse
One moment a Greek God toasting crime
The next moment stretched on the floor
Toad of toad almighty;
How are the mighty fallen.
From my earliest youth
I realised that my nature stretched
Between a sadistic desire to confer suffering-
I remember experiments with wasps
And garden pests
-And a strong thirst for justice...
Is mine saith the Lord
I have still I think
An adolescent's imagination
Unity Owen unknown
Don't be so childish Lawrence
Minstrel shows and nursery rhymes
All the time
I wanted to kill, yes I wanted to kill.
I can't bear the mark of Cain
My punishment is greater than
I can bear I am not
The zoo keeper of mon frère
See Vidal's statue in Paris gardens
Your bloodless ghost will find you out
Between mum's the word and the deep blue sea
The sea is a good place to wait
General ten years older
At a stroke looking out to sea
A good place to wait
And think of Leslie
I loved Leslie that's why I did it.
I loved Hugo that's why I did it
I loved life that's why I took all I could
Natives don't mind dying
But without pity the hunter's forests fail too
It's what anyone will do
Who will not sit patient in a zoo
Said the Übermensch with vulpine teeth
And a gun.
Marston primed to choke to death in moments
Struck in the midst of life.
What did I dream?
Beatrice drowned and come alive
Oh not alive...
Her face, their face, pressed against the window
Let me in MissletmeinMissletmeinMiss
Justice is mine
Saith the Lord
If you tremble you bungle
I have a responsibility
Cool quick hands of the professional
Mum's the word if drink
Caused a muddle and a dying
They will find you out
And feed you with buns
And derision in the hellabaloo of nothing doing
And wrong doing
Ah that's torn it. She's a gonner
Downer for my career.
Man and wife wonder
Like the Russian
Why let her live
We shall not care
In this house
Safe as houses
We shall inherit
We'll live on a copious legacy
An unquick kind of living
Do not leave me love
How tedious, said the Jacobean
Is a guilty conscience.
Now we need must part
A little older.
A little sooner.
Aeons passed on that beach
Words span and whirled
Time was motionless
It was a fine affair
But now it's over.
We've come to the truth now
Vera, you and I
I die to part with you
And it's the end.
A deft conjuring trick
How ever did you do it?
The sea the sea
The whining voice
Why can't I?
It's too far Cyril.
But Miss Claythorn.
Go at your peril
And I'll see you drown
You can go to the rock Cyril
Won't mum have a surprise
To see you waving too far to save.
I did it for you Hugo!
Know your wage is waiting
Noose and hook and sea smell
Yes Hugo was there
To dare the sleepwalker dive off
Alone.
And then there was
None.
Take me to the rock please.
Let God regard us as a zoo there
Oakwood Station
Near to Stickelhaven
Then to sea with
A ferryman whose loopy name
Was Freddy Narracott
In a cramped and choppy boat
He has another name you know
Of course you know.
Old photographs
In black and white
Smeared by the paws of years
We are going to...
We are all going to
Be stretched and lost
That cold feeling clutching the heart-
If I could but repeat repent
Repent repeat repeat after me
Cannot you say sorry at all?
Has the poodle got your soul?
In a house free of standard ghosts
No Sheridan Le Fanu boasts
Rather whitewashed walls
Not dark corners for appearance' sake
But meander meander
White bloodless ghosts
Perjured Landor
Every feature clear and distinct
As though it were yesterday
She hadn't seemed real any more
Three years on she died
There is feeding time
And last orders
Time is not quantity, time is grace and worse
One moment a Greek God toasting crime
The next moment stretched on the floor
Toad of toad almighty;
How are the mighty fallen.
From my earliest youth
I realised that my nature stretched
Between a sadistic desire to confer suffering-
I remember experiments with wasps
And garden pests
-And a strong thirst for justice...
Is mine saith the Lord
I have still I think
An adolescent's imagination
Unity Owen unknown
Don't be so childish Lawrence
Minstrel shows and nursery rhymes
All the time
I wanted to kill, yes I wanted to kill.
I can't bear the mark of Cain
My punishment is greater than
I can bear I am not
The zoo keeper of mon frère
See Vidal's statue in Paris gardens
Your bloodless ghost will find you out
Between mum's the word and the deep blue sea
The sea is a good place to wait
General ten years older
At a stroke looking out to sea
A good place to wait
And think of Leslie
I loved Leslie that's why I did it.
I loved Hugo that's why I did it
I loved life that's why I took all I could
Natives don't mind dying
But without pity the hunter's forests fail too
It's what anyone will do
Who will not sit patient in a zoo
Said the Übermensch with vulpine teeth
And a gun.
Marston primed to choke to death in moments
Struck in the midst of life.
What did I dream?
Beatrice drowned and come alive
Oh not alive...
Her face, their face, pressed against the window
Let me in MissletmeinMissletmeinMiss
Justice is mine
Saith the Lord
If you tremble you bungle
I have a responsibility
Cool quick hands of the professional
Mum's the word if drink
Caused a muddle and a dying
They will find you out
And feed you with buns
And derision in the hellabaloo of nothing doing
And wrong doing
Ah that's torn it. She's a gonner
Downer for my career.
Man and wife wonder
Like the Russian
Why let her live
We shall not care
In this house
Safe as houses
We shall inherit
We'll live on a copious legacy
An unquick kind of living
Do not leave me love
How tedious, said the Jacobean
Is a guilty conscience.
Now we need must part
A little older.
A little sooner.
Aeons passed on that beach
Words span and whirled
Time was motionless
It was a fine affair
But now it's over.
We've come to the truth now
Vera, you and I
I die to part with you
And it's the end.
A deft conjuring trick
How ever did you do it?
The sea the sea
The whining voice
Why can't I?
It's too far Cyril.
But Miss Claythorn.
Go at your peril
And I'll see you drown
You can go to the rock Cyril
Won't mum have a surprise
To see you waving too far to save.
I did it for you Hugo!
Know your wage is waiting
Noose and hook and sea smell
Yes Hugo was there
To dare the sleepwalker dive off
Alone.
And then there was
None.