Police Sergeant Malone and the
Six
Dead Drinkers
Horace Gregory
My last job was the case of The Six Dead Drinkers:
It has given me dreams and my work is less efficient,
It has shown me the will of death and I am impatient
At the lack of will among those who choose to die,
Even ill-health is a palpable excuse;
I should have dropped the case.
The men were found in a hotel linen closet,
The sixth with a three-inch rope around his neck,
A college student who pretended to be dead,
A fool who whispered
That all youth dies, that he did not wish to live:
His breathing corpse was sent to the Polyclinic
Where they brought him to and washed his hands and feet
And offered him the rewards of war and love.
I wrote the first report : it was "heart-failure,"
Body intact and clean, no stains are visible
On wall or street or floor-
And the victim (if he chooses the occasion)
May wear a judge's gown, or a dinner jacket,
Or the tonneau of a State Department car–
After the police and the Mayor are photographed
Newsmen are always glad to be satisfied.
If
it had been a series of gas-house disappearances,
Or a run of phone-booth murders,
Or an Islip heiress who had lost her dog
I would have let
The Fairview psychiatrist reclaim the bodies,
For he had said what no one should forget:
"These men are not quite gone,
499
