Magnussen And The Mayor Poem by David Lewis Paget

‘The way that we go to our death, ' he said,
‘Reflects on the life we lived,
Whether we scream, and rant and curse
Or thank the Lord for the gift.
None of us want to face the thought
Of the long, dark tunnel there,
With no-one to hold or comfort us
In that last, long bleak despair.'

‘I'd like to help you, I really would, '
I muttered under my breath,
He made me feel so discomfited
With this talk about looming death.
I said, ‘You're not going to die today,
Just take it all in your stride,
And pull the cord when you're well away,
Then all you will do is glide.'

I checked his straps and his buckles in
The back of the D.C.3,
One of the old war horses that
We'd bought from the military,
The plane was old, but was good as gold
It had flown for sixty years,
And for all its sins with a strong headwind
It could still fly in reverse.

The jumper was Harold Magnussen
From an old Danish elite,
He came from the Viking Hardware Store
That stood in the old High Street,
But times were tough and he'd had enough
From the council in the town,
The Mayor was running the council and
Was trying to close him down.

The Mayor commissioned a fountain that
Had blocked the right of way,
Surrounded it with a lily pond,
Kept customers away,
The more that Harold complained and sued
The more the Mayor had cooled,
For he was also the magistrate,
And said that the council ruled.

He barred the passage of motor cars
And turned it into a Mall,
Then had the lily pond widened with
No entry there at all,
‘I'll soon be rid of these Vikings, ' said
The Mayor of Saxon Town,
They've ruled this borough for far too long
And now they're going down! '

Harold put on his helmet, and he
Took a look at the time,
‘Are you sure and certain you'll be alright? '
I said, but he looked sublime,
He stepped on out of the open door,
His chute just billowed and flared,
I breathed a sigh of relief, for just
A moment there, I was scared.'

I'd said to head for the pastures where
They'd wait him coming down,
But then I saw he was turning, speeding
To the centre of town,
I thought, ‘He's going to kill himself, '
And I couldn't catch my breath,
So that's what he had been talking about,
Going to seek his death!

The Mayor was sat on the wall outside,
As he did every day at ten,
And Magnussen must have known it for
He timed his jump for then,
He hurtled down and along the street
Boots first, from out and beyond,
And hit the Mayor at a hundred knots
Who flew face down in the pond.

They said that it was unfortunate,
An accident, they said,
And nobody blamed old Magnussen
But the Mayor was drowned, and dead,
They filled the pond and the fountain went
And the cars drive up the street,
Just as it was in the olden days
When the Vikings brought the fleet!

David Lewis Paget