It was a very short distance

from where I sat on the bed,

and he stood at the foot of it

with his face turned from me.

Seven bullets couldn't miss him.

Some of them didn't.

Bruno Fischer

Fools Walk In

1951

Want me to squeeze

the blood out?

Or maybe I could stop

the bleeding?

Cauterize it with my

cigarette.

Kenzo Kitakata

The Cage

1983

(translated by Paul Warham)

In the magician's land of make-

   believe and illusion

what one doesn't see is always

   there . . .

only one doesn't see it

until the conjurer is ready to

   show it.

The silks are stuffed within the

   hollow egg,

the flowers collapsed within the palm

   of his hand,

the card concealed on the back of his

   fingers.

But death is the greatest necromancer

   of all;

in a moment of inattention,

he makes his sleight and palms a

   life,

and one does not realize

that the breathing figure is gone.

Bill S. Ballinger

The Tooth and the Nail

1955

The Good Humor man passed,

his wagon full of ice cream.

Maybe an ice cream

would taste good,

Joe mused.

Then again

maybe it wouldn't.

Go to hell,

Good Humor Man.

Lawrence Block

Pads Are for Passion

1961

She went along the sidewalk in

   the sun

looking like something the censors

had cut out of a sailor's dream.

Charles Williams

A Touch of Death

1954