David Peace - Occupied City

24. Another name from the list, another doctor from the list, this one called Yanagi, this one in Chiba bad men, good men YOU ARE ALWAYS SO SUSPICIOUS, YOU ARE ALWAYS SO JEALOUS Yanagi had once been a research director in Detachment 731 in wartime, in peacetime I DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT, I DON’T KNOW WHO YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT Yanagi had once been in charge of botanical disease experiments war crimes, peace crimes WHAT MEN YOU MEAN, WHAT MAN YOU MEAN Now Yanagi is living on a dusty highway between a tobacconist and a butcher the clues lie in your words HE WAS NEVER HERE, NEVER IN THIS ROOM Now Yanagi is working in a shabby surgery between a noodle shop and a gas station in your words lies the evidence I CAN’T MAKE THEM STAY LOCKED IN THEIR HOUSES For Yanagi is in hiding, for Yanagi is in fear the evidence of your lies, the evidence of your guilt I CAN’T MAKE THEM LEAVE THEIR EYES AT HOME He denies and he lies, then he cowers and he whimpers, and now he confesses to his crimes all men are guilty, all men are culpable I CAN’T MAKE THEM NOT THINK WHAT THEY THINK He begs and he pleads, then he betrays and he informs, and now he gives me a name in wartime, in peacetime I CAN’T STOP YOU BEING SUSPICIOUS, YOU BEING JEALOUS Another name for my list, another doctor for my list, this one called Sawa, this one in Funabashi bad men, bad men PUT A KNIFE IN MY BELLY IF YOU WILL, BUT NEVER PUT YOUR HAND ON MY HAND AGAIN

25. I turn the dark corner, I go up the stairs, I walk along the corridor, I open the metal door, I take off my shoes, I walk through our room, I stand over her body, I lift it up, and I say, Is it still you, are you still here you are not a bad man, but you are a poor man I AM THE GOOD DETECTIVE I should be able to see you with my eyes, but I can’t see you; I should be able to touch you with my hands, but I can’t touch you nothing but her and this job, this bloody job NOTHING BUT WORK UNDER THE SUN I should be able to see things, I should be able to touch things everybody hates the police, nobody talks to the police THE EARTH HOTTER THAN HELL What a very fine city we live in, what a very fine place it is, even finer with company the police don’t talk to the police, even the police hate the police I SWEAT EVEN WHEN I SLEEP Did he stand here, this close to you you’ll be giving someone a very nasty cut one day BUT HELL IS COLD, AND I AM COLD Oh, how I wish I had been him you go through this world like an open razor AS COLD AS THE PAUSE BETWEEN A ‘YES’ AND A ‘NO’ Your lips are so very beautiful, would you had left them at home today someone or something waiting, just waiting to be cut IS THE ‘YES’ TO BLAME FOR THE ‘NO’, OR THE ‘NO’ TO BLAME FOR THE ‘YES’ Your lips, your mouth, so very, very red; why are there no blisters on your lips, your mouth, I wonder a good detective takes care of himself and his family BELOW THIS VERY FINE GREY SKY, ON THIS VERY FINE GREY DAY I can see him now, I can see him standing, him standing here with you a good detective isn’t careless, distracted or foolhardy I WANT TO HAMMER A PEG, A PEG RIGHT INTO THAT SMOKE Oh, how I wish I had been him don’t cut your nails at night, don’t whistle those tunes at night A PEG TO HANG MYSELF FROM I see him, I see him, I see him and I see you, I see you, I see you, I see you and I see you with him, I see you with him, I see you with him, I see you with him and I see an abyss, I see an abyss, I see an abyss, an abyss you have nothing in this world but your wife UNTIL MY BLADDER EMPTIES If you look inside, every man is an abyss, you get dizzy if you look, if you look down, look inside you are a poor man, but not a bad man UNTIL MY NECK BREAKS

26. My colleagues have gone up to Otaru in Hokkaido, gone to arrest a man called Hirasawa Sadamichi among the tunes, among the smoke THE SOUND OF SCRATCHING My colleagues believe they have the evidence to prove that Hirasawa Sadamichi committed the Teikoku crime in the Black Fog, in the Black Mist SCRATCHING UNDER THE GROUND My colleagues believe Hirasawa Sadamichi has no alibi for the time of the Teikoku crime we’ve seen you before IN MEMORIES, BLOODY MEMORIES My colleagues believe Hirasawa Sadamichi had a strong motive for committing the Teikoku crime we’ve seen you pissing ALWAYS TALKING ABOUT ME My colleagues believe Hirasawa Sadamichi is guilty, my colleagues believe Hirasawa Sadamichi is the killer pissing in the street BEHIND MY BACK But I know Hirasawa Sadamichi is not guilty, I know Hirasawa Sadamichi is not the killer pissing down a wall OF THOUGHTS, BLOODY THOUGHTS For I know who is guilty, I know who the killer is pissing like a dog ALWAYS WHISPERING ABOUT ME I know his name and now I know his address among the tunes, among the smoke BEHIND THEIR HANDS And soon, very soon, I will know his face, I will see his face in the Black Fog, in the Black Mist THE DREAMS, BLOODY DREAMS, OF THE GOOD DETECTIVE

27. He shouts, I thought you were my man-on-the-inside, my man-in-the-know, but I’m the last-man-to-know, I’ve been scooped all things are foreign to you, all people are alien I CUT MY NAILS, EVERY NIGHT, AT NIGHT Everyone’s in the dark, I say, not just me, not just you. They have kept the rest of us chasing suspects with military backgrounds, suspects with medical backgrounds, kept telling us to forget about the name-cards no longer human, no longer living SO I MIGHT SEE AGAIN MY FATHER’S GHOST He shouts, But they told us not to write about the military men, about the medical men, told us to keep it out of our papers and look where that’s got us. Duped and scooped reflected, fractured, disfigured and other AT NIGHT, EVERY NIGHT, I CUT MY NAILS You think you people, your newspaper, are the only ones who get censored, I laugh, wake up! This country is an Occupied Country, this city is an Occupied City. They can do what they want, when they want, to who they want, how they want. It’s an Occupied City and it’s a set-up yesterday’s enemy is today’s friend IN THE HOPE YOU’LL COME AGAIN He asks, You’re saying this man Hirasawa is innocent then the battle is over now, the war at an end THAT YOU MIGHT SPEAK TO ME, THAT YOU MIGHT TALK TO ME Of course he is, I sigh, but they are desperate. They followed the name-cards and this is where it’s led them. But there are seventeen name-cards which have still not yet been traced, that are still not yet accounted for. This man Hirasawa is just one of the seventeen and the moment the survivors set eyes on him, that will be that with fond farewells and salutes you part THAT YOU MIGHT TELL ME WHAT TO DO He asks, That will be what, what do you mean wheeling to the left, then to the right I CUT MY NAILS, EVERY NIGHT, AT NIGHT The end of their case, I laugh, because the survivors won’t be able to identify Hirasawa, because it wasn’t him, and so then they’ll have to let him go again in new dances to old tunes THAT YOU WILL TELL ME WHAT TO DO, PLEASE TELL ME WHAT TO DO Now the journalist says, You really think so no longer living, no longer human ABOUT MY WORK, PLEASE TELL ME, ABOUT MY HOUSE I really know so, I say, all of us do, all of us except Ikki and his name-card team. It’s all circumstantial everyone alien here, everything foreign now ABOUT MY MOTHER, PLEASE TELL ME, ABOUT MY WIFE He says, But off-the-record your top men are telling us they are 100 per cent certain about Hirasawa Sadamichi, 100 per cent certain he is guilty. That’s why they’ve gone so public with his arrest nothing is spared PLEASE TELL ME, ABOUT MY WIFE, PLEASE And, of course, you believe everything you hear, I laugh, everything they tell you. Well, you just watch no one is spared NO MORE NIGHT, NO MORE NAILS