Plane Sickening

The plane had crashed
Into a small football field
In Kidbrooke, London
Just two travellers
Husband and Wife

The report said that
The woman had radioed
That her husband had had a heart attack
And that she was
Trying to land the plane in the park

Seeing Sunday morning
Footballers on the ground
She had frantically tried
To land the plane in
The top field which
Save a small clubhouse, was empty

She had stalled the plane in midair
Then the engine had
Restarted, full throttle
As she dove straight into the ground
There was debris everywhere

The Police and Fire-Brigade
Were soon on the scene
And had cordoned off the area
From prying, morbid eyes

Down both sides of the long road
Bits of plane and human being
Were strewn like some kind of
Grotesque Jigsaw puzzle

We arrived an hour or so after the crash
And were beckoned through the cordon
We unloaded three makeshift, temporary
Coffins and, accompanied by police
And fire crew, set about the task
Of retrieving the two occupants of
The now disintegrated airplane

The CAA (Civil Aviation Authority)
Representatives had arrived
And were trying to work-out the
Best way to retrieve the engine of the plane
Which had ended up buried many feet
Below the muddy ground of the playing field

We started in the road first

Looking for chalk marks
Which were being left by police and fire-crew
Indicating a fragment of skull, some teeth
And unidentifiable 'bits and pieces'
Mostly covered in blood

To my right
One of the fire-crews had erected a ladder
And were trying to poke
part of an arm out of a tree

All the time we kept walking

Picking up bits and
Placing them into carrier bags before
Finally piling them, blood-soaked
into one of the coffins

Identifiable bits
Went into the brown coffin

I was asked to attend to the club-house
There was a large hole in the roof
Where plane and torso had ripped through

In the loft, part of a leg
Still in trousers could be seen poking out

The policeman opened the latch
Leading to the loft
And I climbed the few steps up
To collect my sickening prize

I removed a wad of money
From the pocket and gave it
To the policeman

"I guess they'll never get
to spend this" he said
with a sad, forced grin
and a tinge of sadness in his voice

"I suppose not. It seems you
CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU"
I replied

A few hours later
We collected the coffins
Full of mud, blood, teeth, torso and guts

The man and his wife
Now fully accounted for

The coroner was satisfied

"Any bits left now are either too small to
worry about or have likely been carried off by the birds or the local
cats and dogs" he said

"Guess even death profits someone"

We made our way to the coroners office
And started to pour the
Contents of our coffins onto the polished cold
Slabs that had seen so
Much death before them

"That's a bit of the woman"

Said the mortuary attendant

"How can you tell?"

"I just can, he said"
with a look of rancid superiority about him

"This lot's gonna take some putting back together"

"Still, I reckon we got the easy job

They reckon the CAA
Will be down there for days collecting
what's left of the plane"

We finished emptying the coffins
And got back into the van

"Home?" I said to the others

"Nah, reckon we could all do with a pint"

"Who's round is it?" I said

"Hell, I'll buy 'em
We've just picked up
A couple of hundred quid in overtime"
He said with a big Undertaker grin on his face

"Guess the pilot IS going to be using
Some of that money I found after all"

Oh well, today was not a total loss!

We got our beers
Raised our glasses
And offered a toast to the dead

It was just another Sunday lunch-time

At least for some of us?