Great Books—Thriller Books—Mystery Stories
ROBERT TELL, Author
POLICE STORY
(SAMPLE STANZAS)
Through the Wall Street canyons I pursued him.
He never seemed to tire or stop for breath.
Up Broadway to the Village. Things looked grim.
I wondered if he'd lead me to my death.
I was in great shape but I began to tire
as he rerouted to Delancy Street.
I drew my gun but did not dare to fire
as glancing back he beat his fast retreat.
I glimpsed his face there in the pale street light,
and saw his wet beard red with human blood;
My God! I hoped my distant night eyesight
had misconstrued as blood some harmless crud.
As we approached the Bowery and Grand Street
he turned to face me and I sure did see
large canine fangs shining in the street light
and feared that these would be the end of me.
***
GORFAGOG
(SAMPLE STANZAS)
Once upon a frightening time
the town was gripped with monstrous crime.
The East was ruled by Gorfagog
(a thirty ton gigantic frog)
who blocked the roadways in and out
of Tan-Ta-Ro, and whose snout
contained a tongue of fearful length
and also of surprising strength.
This Gorfagog would love to show
his tongue to those who did not know;
and those who got a bit too near
quite suddenly would disappear.
Zap and Snap! That tongue would fly,
and victims would be forced to cry:
"Please help us, help us, Tan-Ta-Rog.
Please save us from mean Gorfagog."
***
WHY THE WILLOW WEEPS
(SAMPLE STANZAS)
"Barney Bittle, do not whittle
toys or other things that need
pieces from my trunk or middle,
from my branches or my seed."
Barney stopped and raised his eyes.
A weeping willow dripping tears
looked down from the hidden skies
and told Barney of its fears.
"Once," it said, while crying sapdrops
that sticky stuck upon the ground,
"willows grew like happy crops
that never cried and never frowned."
"That was very long ago.
Before your time without a doubt.
We thrived on tons of rain and snow;
but that was long before The Drought."
***
HIGBY HYSCORER
(SAMPLE STANZAS)
Higby Hyscorer,
young space explorer,
was off to the moon again.
Selected by NASA
as being first class, a
young man with a talented brain.
The purpose was clear.
Sometime the next year,
a shipful of people would leave
green Earth behind
and hope they would find
a place on the moon to achieve
a new way of life
without Earthbound strife.
Some thought this project naive.
***
HALLOWEEN GOLF
(SAMPLE STANZAS)
For those of you that think that golf is dull,
here's a tale that may affect your view—
for on the fourteenth hole a human skull
was in the bunker where my golf ball flew.
Annoyed at messing up my three wood drive,
I mumbled cusses underneath my breath.
Thinking that I should have used my five,
I came upon this detritus of death.
I was not prepared for this macabre sight.
A sand trap hazard wasn't on my docket.
My ball had ended its haphazard flight
teed up upon the grinning skull's eye socket.
This may have been the evidence of crime,
but first I faced the challenge to my play.
Could I move the errant ball from this hard lie?
What guidance did the P.G.A. convey?
Excerpted from Police Story, Copyright © 2013 by Robert Tell, All Rights reserved.