The Girl Detective

            "'So, it’s come to that,' she said. 'You’re jealous of policemen.'"                 —Dashiell Hammett, The Thin Man

The girl detective does not date She sits at home       eating a piece of devil’s food cake with red frosting       She sits at home with a pregnancy test        Icebox light       slats the kitchenette

The girl detective rolls seamed stockings down one at a time, slips       off her crepe de chine and navy pumps           In dotted swiss pajamas        she yanks out the lousy Murphy bed flips on her hot-bulb Hawaiian lamp        the hula dancer’s       pampas skirt sways        hips like lava             skin like kola nut