"Midnight shakes the memory as a madman shakes a dead geranium" - TS Eliot - Rhapsody on a windy night



Look out the window at midnight

As dusty wind blows down the street

See Mr Jones outside his house

With eyes that in the centre meet



He picks up a plant pot upside down

And shakes the dry earth out

Then retreats back through his open porch

Saying “I am sane without a doubt”



His daughter in the morning finds

Her geranium is dead

She does not blame her father 

For he was fast asleep in bed



She throws it on the compost heap

Where she discovers with a shock

All the keys that have gone missing

From all their neighbours locks



She takes them in to show her mum

Who lies headless on the floor

Her stiff white finger pointing

To a note pinned on the door



It says that Mr Jones is mad

Completely round the bend

Why daddy chopped off mummy’s head

She does not comprehend



But as she leaves the bloodstained house

To find a neighbour she can trust

She sees her dad is standing on the roof

And screaming fit to bust:



“She made my life a misery!

She made me wish that I was dead!

So this morning with a carving knife

I cut off dear Susan’s head!”