Tony Hancock, the celebrated British comic actor, died on June 25th 1968.
Donated a bottle of blood to an anaemic nation,
Shouted SOS through an empty vodka bottle,
For so long the drinks were on you,
You were good, very good,
You told yourself that from the script within,
The script that never changes, never progresses,
The one that you believe in like a manic mantra,
And in the vodka vapours, the hurting haze,
Did you remember those lines from the bible,
Something like looking through a glass darkly?
They told you were good, very good, but
Not that good, believing you could do it alone,
With no words but your own, from that hackneyed
Script within, the one you wrote all those laughless
Years ago playing to an audience of chinking glasses.
When the laughter stopped again, you left Old Albion
And its flickering lights and fading bill posters, left
For Down Under, for a new act in Australia, down,
Down under... down under... down under...
Believing you could do it alone, you took your own
Life, left a message that read like a Beckett line,
'I can't go on', or words to that effect, and did you
See the irony in the place of your suicide, come on,
Tony, you must have, clever you, the place, the city,
Sydney... Sydney... Sid James, get it?
Chris Fernie, 2009
Poetry by Chris Fernie
Read 418 times
Written on 2009-07-02 at 11:02
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Hancock
You had the bottle to educate Archie,Donated a bottle of blood to an anaemic nation,
Shouted SOS through an empty vodka bottle,
For so long the drinks were on you,
You were good, very good,
You told yourself that from the script within,
The script that never changes, never progresses,
The one that you believe in like a manic mantra,
And in the vodka vapours, the hurting haze,
Did you remember those lines from the bible,
Something like looking through a glass darkly?
They told you were good, very good, but
Not that good, believing you could do it alone,
With no words but your own, from that hackneyed
Script within, the one you wrote all those laughless
Years ago playing to an audience of chinking glasses.
When the laughter stopped again, you left Old Albion
And its flickering lights and fading bill posters, left
For Down Under, for a new act in Australia, down,
Down under... down under... down under...
Believing you could do it alone, you took your own
Life, left a message that read like a Beckett line,
'I can't go on', or words to that effect, and did you
See the irony in the place of your suicide, come on,
Tony, you must have, clever you, the place, the city,
Sydney... Sydney... Sid James, get it?
Chris Fernie, 2009
Poetry by Chris Fernie
Read 418 times
Written on 2009-07-02 at 11:02
Save as a bookmark (requires login) Write a comment (requires login) Send as email (requires login) Print text
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