The Spoonbill Generator

An Entropic Encroachment

As we waited for the bus to mow the wicked postman down [P]

I started to imagine he'd already fled the town [Roland]

The trap we'd set had seemed to us so certain to succeed [TG]

His sudden disappearance now seemed very rum indeed [Roland]

We'll have to send a posse out to scour round all the bars [TG]

And go down to the docks to quiz the many canny tars [P]

That specialise in acts so gross they mostly lack a name [Roland]

But they'll help us catch the postman for they know that he's to blame [P]

It all began last August, when the second letter came [TG]

Containing the instructions: when to strike, and whom to maim [Roland]

The postman had prepared a shelf of evil-looking jars [TG]

That rivalled in their odium those chutneys of Mama's [Roland]

We knew we had to stop him - we just couldn't let him breed! [TG]

For fear of what might blossom from such blue-blood Royal-Mail seed [Roland]

We sent for an exterminator, one of great renown [TG]

Who came with flashing eyes and a wildly flowing gown! [Bop]

He came with whetstone gleaming, he came with blades to spare [Roland]

And great the ululation when we saw his flowing hair [TG]

But once the ghastly deed was done, we sang another tune [Roland]

We lacked the inner fortitude to harvest what we'd hewn [TG]

And as we waited for that 'bus, our consciences ablaze [Roland]

We realised the postman's plot had numbered all our days [TG]

from zero up, in incremental steps of seventeen [Roland]

And when the deed was done, we murmured "Heav'n preserve the Queen!" [TG]


Contributors: P, Roland, TG, Bop.
Poem finished: 23rd March 1999.