‘I was an egotistical detective’ by Christopher DeWeese

I was an egotistical detective
known for baroque solutions
to seemingly simple murders

and for diagramming them
on billiard tables, croquet fields
or the like

like slightly aristocratic signatures.

You were the well-aliased mistress
of many a dead thespian
whose demises corresponded
with their most timeless roles.

I questioned you gently.

Your eyes wrote RSVPs
against my greying body.

Wiping lipstick into an evidence bag,
I thought about how even poison
could be an accessory.

Proving you guilty was easy
once I was covered
in your fingerprints.

From issue #5: autumn/winter 2017

About the Author
Christopher DeWeese is the author of two books of poems, The Black Forest and The Father of the Arrow is the Thought, both published in the US by Octopus Books. His poems have appeared in Boston Review, Granta, The Moth, Southword and Tin House. He is currently Assistant Professor of Poetry at Wright State University.