The Legend of Lionel McGee
There was something seriously off about Lionel McGee
And there had been since he was a child.
He tortured dogs and cats, and once a horse of fine pedigree,
Using a gun that was old and filed.
As he aged, his little games were played on a more cunning note.
He had to hide the fact that he killed.
He’d throw his victims in the river and away they would float –
The current carried them where it willed.
Eventually he was caught and hanged at the neck till he died.
A more gruesome sight was never seen.
They forgot to cover his head before his body swung wide,
And the Hangman failed to intervene.
His bulging eyes drew the crowd’s disgust, and children ran crying.
Disgruntled witnesses closed their eyes,
But it was hard to ignore the smell of the guilty dying.
Plus, pooled awful drew the crowd’s cries.
Whatever the case, clearly Lionel McGee was offended.
His ghost rose up with a shriek of rage!
Before the crowd knew what was what, the gallows was upended.
His poor carcass rolled beneath the stage!
He gave a final bellow, and then he disappeared for good,
Leaving the crowd to defend the tale;
They had to attest to why their jaws were agape where they stood,
And why they voiced a collective wail.
The whispers of Lionel McGee’s name dissipated like fog.
Years passed without a situation.
Then one night, some drunken men sat by the river drowned in smog,
They joked of Lionel’s reputation.
Some say the men’s mockery made old Lionel rise from the dead.
His shadowy hand clutched his filed gun,
And he somehow managed to blast the eyeballs from each man’s head!
Not one of them saw how it was done.
The blinded men wandered toward town, waking all as they went.
At first, people were slow to believe,
Because clearly the lousy sods felt drinking was time well spent.
Who knew what web of lies they could weave?
There was no arguing that the men’s sockets were bare to bone.
Their fortune was there for all to see!
After that fateful night, none would wander the river alone.
Thus…the Legend of Lionel McGee.
Copyright March 2009 () () Sheila Roy
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