We all gathered at the "Trip to Jerusalem" pub
Under the walls of Nottingham castle
To assemble for the crusades.
Well it took us two and a half months
To get to the shore at Jaffa
And tackle the heathen, fighing under Saladin.
We did not do too well at first
As we had been seasick for most of the voyage
And fighting in armour and chain-mail was bloody hot.
Our horses were not used to sand
Like the heathen`s camels.
So we pitched our tents and had a pow-wow.
Had a brew up and decided to go home.
The word went round, gather on the beach at Hastings
Some French bastard called William
Is making a take-over bid.
Well we all drew up battle lines
The French archers fired arrows
High up in the air.
So we all looked up to see this spectacle.
When our leader, Harold happened to cop one
In the eye.
Well there was not much more to do.
We had a cup of tea and a pow-wow
And decided to go home.
High over the Channel I spotted three Dorniers
Flying alone.
I put my Hurricane in a fast dive
And clobbered the rearmost one.
Pulling up in climb to tackle the others
Which had scattered I spotted the three FW90`s
Diving fast.
Well we circled squirting off rounds at each other
Without a lot of success.
Out of ammo. I found cloud cover
And headed back to the safety of the white cliffs of Dover.
Safe, my arse!
Trigger happy ack-ack gunners opened up on me.
Knocked off my tail
And I bailed out to land in a cottage garden.
Well we and the cottagers had a cup of tea
And then I went home.
Author notes
A reincarnated warrior from (a) The Crusades ( The battle of Hastings and (c) The battle of Britain (which if I remember is WWII, sorry about that.)
The Trip to Jerusalem Inn is still there, carved out of the rock underneath Nottingham Castle
A contest entry
- Write me a Poem about History {{Editted to Allow Pre-Writes}} by SpydurPoet.
705 points, ended August 19, 2007, 27 entries
Honorable mention
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
Please tell me what you think
Comments
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a good fun filled trip into the ribbons of life - history weaves stories into poetry's full body and shines humour across the centuries with ease.
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I like this amusing take on three different historical periods. The chatty, vernacular style works well and the Englishman's solution to all problems--the cuppa--is a great touch, reminding me of the old song "Fred and Me" sung by Bernard Cribbins. Well done.
Bill
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Under these dire circumstances.It certainly seemed the thing to do.This piece of history speaks in a personafied voice addressing an eventual outcome well.
-
This was a good poem, but you didn't put the event in the author's note. You have 48 hours to do it before it is disqualified.
Thanks for entering!
Write on.
~*~SP~*~
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