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

Two bodies lay, with fractured bones

And noggins split asunder—

Two broken backs across the tracks.

The cops could only wonder,

Since not a single clue was there

To Who or what or why,

Or how they met their Waterloo.

Who pushed them off to die?

The victims of this crime were twins,

Alike in dress and feature,

With one a sweet and gentle man—

A boon to fellow creature;

The other brother brash and mean,

As changeable as weather,

But though they never got along,

They seemed to stick together.

One day, while strolling on a bridge

That spanned a busy station,

The conversation turned to shouts

Of wild vituperation

Delivered by the evil twin,

And when his rage was spent,

He fixed his brother with a grin

Of murderous intent;

And as the victim stopped to watch

A train, and turned his back,

He hoisted him above the edge,

And hurled him towards the track.

While doing so, he felt a surge

Of unexpected terror,

And clutched the wall, to break his fall,

Too late to mend his error.

Moral:

The wretched fellow made, you see,

Atonement for his sins,

By foolishly forgetting he

Was one of Siamese twins.