The Body Snatchers Poem by David Lewis Paget

He peered on out at the darkening sky,
Pulled out the watch from its fob,
Traced his finger across the hand
That would time his nefarious job,
Then Matthew Scribbins packed his tools,
The short, strong wooden spade,
Designed for silence while biting deep
Into the dirt of the grave.

The wooden pushcart never came out
As long as the moon shone bright,
His lantern gave out a muted glow
That could barely be seen in the night,
The canvas sheeting lay in a roll
Ready to spread out wide,
To heap the dirt from his shovellings
Then wrap the body inside.

He took his orders from almoners
Watching the hospital wards,
They'd look for cadavers heading on out,
And tell him, ‘This one is yours! '
Physicians needed a steady supply
For their students, fit to dissect,
The fresher the body the more it was worth
When he hauled it out by the neck.

He pushed his cart down the backyard lane
And whistled low for his youth,
Then out of the shadows crept his mark
An urchin called Henry Tooth,
For Henry went and he helped to dig
Or tunnelled from four feet down,
Then ripped the head from the coffin of deal
For the prize that was worth five pound.

‘Tonight we've got us a lucky one,
Just buried this afternoon,
The earth is soft ‘til the rains have come,
We'll be in and out in the gloom.'
He leered at Tooth as they pushed the cart
To the graveyard at Paxton Hurle,
‘You ‘ll get a good look at what is what,
Tonight, we've got us a girl! '

The lad grinned back and he threw his cap
On the ground, and picked up the spade,
Went in at the head where the coffin was,
While the lantern lay in the shade,
In twenty minutes they hit the top
With a mute, dull muffled sound,
And smashed it through to attach the rope
Then pull the girl from the ground.

She lay with her eyes wide open there,
Looked blankly up at the sky,
Her hair in tresses around her neck
That said: ‘It's a shame to die! '
Young Henry stared with a haunted look
And crossed himself in the dark,
‘Get on with it boy, we haven't time,
We're not in a boating park! '

Then Scribbins caught at the hem of her shroud
And pulled it over her head,
She lay stark naked with pearly skin
In a stark affront to the dead,
They took the rings from her fingers then,
The earrings out of her ears,
And tossed them back in the coffin then
With the shroud, to banish their fears.

For theft was classed as a felony,
And that could have got them hung,
The body a misdemeanor, just
A fine or imprisonment.
They shovelled the earth back into the grave
And rolled the girl in the sheet,
Then placed her up on the handcart:
‘Just imagine that she's asleep! '

They carried her to the dissection room
Picked up their pound of flesh,
Unrolled the girl on a marble slab,
The doctors would do the rest.
A novice thought he would make a cut
And raised a knife ‘til it gleamed,
Her breast had quivered as he drew blood
And the girl sat up, and screamed!

18 December 2012