Paul Bell

Comfort and Joy

It’s with heavy heart I pen this verse

Watching your father pass by in the hearse

Takes me back to that night in the shed

When you said, this is like fireworks

It was,  I dropped the cigarette on the petrol can

Still, as I remarked, not many sheds get a technicolour funeral

He was beyond reason

Not helped when rumours of porno magazines started circulating

He told me straight, marry my daughter and I’ll kill myself

So we married in haste

But he didn’t keep his promise

What a waste

Still, when that great oak fell on top of his new shed

I had a grin from ear to ear

It was like the chainsaw massacre, but more fun

It was about that time you found god

I found your sister

You forgave me, I was weak

She was pregnant, sixteen weeks

Your dad went mad, he said I was the devil incarnate

Then he dropped dead

They looked at me in horror, in dread

Like it was something I said

Do something they cried

I didn’t know any songs, so I punched him between the eyes

He was definitely dead

I carried the coffin

The least  I could do

I shed a tear, maybe two

We decided to scatter his ashes over his pride and joy

But they couldn’t be found

The crematorium were in shock, people were running around

It was like he just disappeared

I was agog

Couldn’t see the mist for the smog

Later that day, just to console

I produced a big rocket

Really his soul

I set it off, and said goodbye

They had a little cry

It climbed high in the sky

They gave a sigh

Should it not explode

Well it is supposed to go with a bang

Just then it made its descent

It was like he was heaven sent

Plummeting to earth

Mad as hell

We all dived for cover

Just as well

She screamed, oh god, oh boy

No need to tell you where he landed

Okay then

His comfort and joy.