Man on the Gibbet (after Daphne Du Maurier)
My goal in life was to grow up like Ambrose;
at 27, he was the god of all creation to me.
He showed me the man on the gibbet swaying
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in the breeze, told me, "It's what we all come
to in the end. A warning to you, Philip, to lead
a sober life." We watched the corpse slowly twist
in the breeze like a fancy display at the local fair.
Ambrose added, "Here is Tom Jenkyn, honest, dull
-- but he liked his noggin and fought with his wife.
"If men killed women for their tongues, we would all
be murderers." It was then I recognized the corpse--
he was the chap who sold lobsters on the town quay!
He set live lobsters free to amuse us little boys,
arranged the funny scittle-scattle races on the quay.
Ambrose asked, "Philip, what think you of him now?"
I kicked the foot of the gibbet. I answered slow,
"Tom had a brighter face when I saw him last. Now,
he isn't fresh enough for bait for his own lobsters."
Christopher T. George
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