Poetry

Sunday, 13 February 2022

The parachute tester's ball

 

At the parachute testers ball

I just dropped in to say hi

You look like the kind of guy

Who wears a silk shirt

Hi

Say Hi

Hi, how high

Oh, from that balcony over there

To the stair

I dare you guy

Why I don't care

I've tested thousands of parachutes before

What's one more silk shirt

Swinging from a chandelier?

So, he positioned himself on the bannister’s edge

Overlooking the dance hall

The mezzanine floor 

was like a bomber's open door

And he bit his lip and said a prayer then leapt and reached for the chandelier

What a stunt! What a feat of human feet

And engineering

Said the boffins below

Who had all studied aerospace dynamics at Bristol

Whereas he just thought he'd give it a go

I worked my way up he said, one step at a time

Until I reached the pilot’s bar

Where the wings hang out

The red bulls and the Icarus's who fell

The Minotaur and his lover

And Daedalus is dancing the fox trot

With the young men from Athens

Who invented the parachute, they ask?

Was it Socrates or Plato?

Aristotle or Pluto?

No, it was Galileo

So where is he when you need him?

He's calculating the coefficient of friction

That is your grip, as you slip

From the last candle stick

That has been burning from the dusk til dawn

And 

And what?

Eventually you'll fall

Like a feather from the tower of Pisa

Onto the folks below

Or a hammer blow

Yes, more likely

Now put on the silk shirt 

And let's see you test the vest

It is the safest place to try it

As there's paratroopers ten abreast

And they will catch you like a leaf

Or you'll come to a grief

But either way you must leap

Into the great unknown

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