Tony Dawson

DEAD TO RIGHTS

Liam and Mick had hatched a plan.
They needed some cash for they were broke.
They used to care for an older man
who’d died that day of a massive stroke.
Liam went to collect his pension,
“for the man himself’s too ill to come.”
The clerk in the office paid no attention.
“He has to come. It’s a tidy sum,
I’m not allowed to give it to you.”
So, Liam went home to confer with Mick.
They supported the corpse—whose face was blue—
as if he were drunk. Could they pull off the trick?
Later, I heard a young woman tell
the police that “when they went for the pension,
the man in the middle looked quite unwell.
He couldn’t walk, which I forgot to mention.”
When one of the young men asked for payment,
The clerk in the office refused again.
“All requests have to come from the claimant.”
The young men let go of the corpse to explain.
The body collapsed and dropped to the floor.
Mick and Liam both screamed in horror.
Mick turned white and Liam swore
under his breath, “Begosh and begorra!
We said he was ill and unable to come,
you could see he was poorly, just as we said.
But you insisted. Now see what you’ve done.
Our dear old friend has fallen down dead.
You’d best call the Gardai. We’re going to sue.
You made him come, so his death is on you!


Tony's YouTube video reading of "Dead to Rights":



Subscribe and turn on Notifications for Channel 52.


Tony confesses: "The first part of the poem is loosely based on a newspaper report, although the two miscreants fled when they let go of the body in the post office. It occurred to me that as the Irish are known for their blarney, an alternative ending might have been plausible..."

TONY DAWSON has lived in Seville since 1989. His writing has appeared in print in Critical Survey, Shoestring Press, Poems-for-All, Chiron Review, Pure Slush, and Loch Raven Review, as well as online at London Grip, The Syndic Literary Journal, Horror Sleaze and Trash, Cajun Mutt Press, Poetry and Covid, Beatnik Cowboy, and Home Planet News.