Only One: Sixth German Spy

The Folly

The German Spy

Only One

The genius Falco has put his eye on a newish house of brick

Newish house with newish tile-capped wall, fatly hipped

Just under this, on the garden side, roses, that predictable

Middle-class person’s garish choice

A treacly morbid pink

Insistently like the vomitus of a suicide by poison

Bloody froth surrounded by a jaundiced glaze

He is near twitching with this restive scorn

Can it be…? The falcon doubts it much

And finds it plausible high places have sent down

A delaying order

He longs for them to find her

Perhaps the mistake had been the counterpane

The water low the weather sultry

The boatman poling past the culvert mouth

Well…does one report a dosser, sleeping rough?

He would not himself, this bird of prey

No reward

Worse when they find she’s dead

But he has done for Krug…unbidden

Old-fashioned service, if you like

He might do for this lot here

Most astonishing…so many accidents to cover up

The sting of ingratitude, he feels it

There is only one Falco, only one

Stop him if you can

Only One

Lonely in Its Reckoning

lie of a lucky meeting

(2018, Stephanie Foster)