characters

Characters
Dislodge compulsions
For this lone night. 
They populate
Reluctant dreams. 
They’ve come quite deep
To pitch their story
Through. 
They say their piece. 
Just once. 
Listen closely.
Do not interrupt. 
Do not wake. 
And if you must,
Write it softly down. 
Only then
Might they return
For another scene. 

Walt Whitman and the Phrenology of Murder

Set against the backdrop of antebellum Manhattan and Brooklyn, this historical mystery mixes sexual mores, politics, music, poetry, and the science of Phrenology in a compelling portrait of a transitional time.