The “Smyths’ were hyphened ‘Prendergast’ <br />This shows they were illustrious <br />They owned some banks, and also vast <br />Businesses industrious <br />So now they seeked to represent <br />Their ancient History <br />But somehow had to circumvent <br />A small anomaly <br />For this concerned Great Uncle Max <br />Who was a brigand known <br />He cheated on his Income Tax <br />And reaped the “Wild Oats” sown <br />“Old Unck’” as he was called by Cops <br />Was caught right in the ‘Act” <br />They “Chaired” him with electric strops <br />For murder. That’s a fact! <br />The Prenderghastly-Smyths now had <br />A problem to record <br />Avoiding telling truth so bad <br />They offered a reward. <br />They found a writer with a twist <br />Of syllables in mind <br />To find the words and to resist <br />Telling lies to blind <br />Anyone who might discover <br />The happenings that day <br />And so by seeking undercover <br />Bring Disgrace to play <br />And so to hide electrocution <br />In that fateful place <br />He employed some elocution <br />To save ancestral ‘Face’ <br />“The Chair that Uncle Max had held <br />In Governmental State <br />Was tied to him as strong as weld <br />Until he be-came late <br />‘Electronics Application’ <br />Was the seat he filled <br />Great the shock of termination <br />When his heart was stilled.”<br /><br />Christopher Higginson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-execution-of-great-uncle-max/
