FILM NOIRE

 

                                                                                    

 

Film Noire

“Dead men are heavier than broken hearts.”

Raymond Chandler

 

For

Daniel Wade

 

 

John A. Maher, Private Detective, peered out

The window of the fourth floor of Lafayette,

His vantage point was on par with a Gargoyle!

The river split the city like a fissure, before him.

 

It was a city divided by accent and money.

On the northside, speech was contracted to the point

Of almost unintelligibility, which he liked

Never quite trusting language himself.

 

While on the south, it was all accent darling,

Barring the odd enclave. Maher moved through it all

Monosyllabic, stony-faced and with mild amusement.

 

Humans were weak creatures so prone to error.

And so some were driven to crime; one needed a hard fist,

Copious amounts of alcohol and a certain penchant for metaphysics.