We knew that the plane was going to crash,
We plunged through the air, on high,
We probably had five minutes to grieve
A minute to say goodbye,
She clung to me from her window seat
And cried, ‘It’s starting to fray.’
And through the port I could see the wing
As it tore, and twisted away.

‘Why did you make me take this flight?’
She cried, as the others screamed,
‘I could have been happily safe at home
If not for your stupid dream.’
She meant the holiday we had planned
Forever, to take in Rome,
The Coliseum, it still would stand
When they ferried our bodies home.

I felt quite peeved, for I didn’t want
To take in those ancient piles,
But she’d insisted that Rome it was,
I wanted the Grecian Isles.
This wasn’t the time for an argument
So I patted her crying cheek,
I needed to hear her ‘I love you’,
But that would have taken a week.

The plane was spinning, with just one wing
Was heading nose down to the ground,
And all the passengers screamed and cursed,
Stood up, were lurching around.
‘Just get me my bag from the overhead,
It holds all our holiday cash,’
It didn’t dawn on her she’d be dead,
To mention it would have been rash.

‘At least we’re together, Cheryl my love,’
I said, in calming her down.
We’d passed right through the cumulus cloud
So close we were to the ground.
The engine was screaming, the one we had
The emergency door flew wide,
And suddenly Cheryl was torn from her seat,
****** out of the aircraft, and died.

I sat in the blast from the open door,
My heart had stopped in my chest,
I cried, ‘My God! Just let it be quick,
My lover has gone to her rest.’
‘What lover’s that?’ said my Cheryl’s voice,
From the foot of our bed, at home.
‘You mean we’re saved, that we have a choice?
There’s no way we’re going to Rome!’

David Lewis Paget