Dorothy James

PANTOUM BY A PUZZLED POLICEMAN

Mr. Schulz, your sister died,
I cannot tell you how.
Is it possible you lied?
You didn’t want to know?

I cannot tell you how
But I hope we’ll be indicting.
You didn’t want to know?
Yes, we’ll put her death in writing.

But I hope we’ll be indicting
The character who did it.
Yes, we’ll put her death in writing.
Would you rather that we hid it?

The character who did it,
He left her in the water,
Would you rather that we hid it?
She was your mother’s daughter.

He left her in the water.
Does it really leave you cold?
She was your mother’s daughter,
She wasn’t very old.

Does it really leave you cold?
Is it possible you lied?
She wasn’t very old.
Mr. Schulz, your sister died.


Gerald So reads "Pantoum by a Puzzled Policeman":



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Dorothy confesses: "Inspector Büchner, my detective in A Place to Die, writes poems to amuse himself, sometimes to think about a case. He wrote this pantoum in a novel I have not quite finished, when he was much puzzled by the reactions of the murder victim’s brother."

DOROTHY JAMES, writer, translator, blogger, was born in Wales, lives in Brooklyn, and travels a lot. Her first murder mystery, A Place to Die, appeared in April 2010 and is set in Vienna, a city she knows well. She writes about murder mysteries in her blog, My Place for Mystery.