Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Vol. 108, No. 3 & 4. Whole No. 661 & 662, September/October 1996

Crime without Equity by Donet Meynell Clayton

© 1996 by Donet Meynell Clayton

There are two murderers in my room,

Day and night waging silent war:

Two illumined hands on a field of time.

I can shut my door against disaster,

I can close my heart against war,

But I can never escape

The tick of their stealthy weapons.

The sins of the silver sword are manifold;

He murders minutes.

But the shorter rogue is the greater villain;

Steady and cautious, with infinite precision

He thrusts his dagger into the full breast of a poignant hour.