All the Genteel Killers

[billy]

There is something so intense and pure
about a US crime novel.
Dealers, dames, drenched raincoats,
a wayward hero drinking scotch
as the boffins carve the corpse. is 'the' needed?
Something so unpretentious,
removed from pink morality.

Once the English summers died
and all the genteel killers left would left work better on the next line
in paddy wagons down the lanes, would down the lanes be better on it's own line with country before lanes?
I closed my Christie's, Allingham's, US crime novels?
and sought out Raymond Chandler. great verse

This vision of a world defined
by hungry greed and violence,
righted only by the hand
of an alcoholic cop,
a non-committal private dick,
holds the comfort of escape,
and the soul of realness. now were US

my one real nit is; would the 2nd verse work as the first verse. in which case the english novelists wouldn't pull us up short, it would also set us up for the parts relevant to the title.

that aside my other points are small nits on what i perceive to be a really good poem. while i like the 2nd verse, the last verse is my favourite. specially 'a non-committal private dick,'

thanks for the read and the memory, i read a few chandler book a long time ago.