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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=365764" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Jack Ketch</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">I was only sixteen, when I was seduced<br>By a woman of thirty-three, <br>The Governor's wife at the Prisoner's Ball<br>And she offered to dance with me, <br>I blushed, I stammered, and hung my head<br>But she moved with a fluid grace, <br>She took my hand for the Colonel's Waltz, <br>And squeezed in a warm embrace.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I did the odd job at the prison then, <br>Just sweeping and cleaning the yard, <br>Carrying messages round each wing<br>But nothing you'd call too hard, <br>I'd sometimes go to the Governor's House<br>To help with the garden there, <br>And I'd see his wife, sweet Caroline, <br>As she sunned herself in a chair.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">She would lie in that part of the garden <br>Shaded cool by an apple tree, <br>Reading a book in her cozy nook<br>Taking little account of me, <br>Or so I thought, 'til the day she sought<br>Me out at the Prisoner's Ball, <br>When she whispered things in my ear that night<br>And pinned me close to the wall.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I was just a boy, and she wanted a toy to<br>Play with when she was bored, <br>She egged me on in the garden shade<br>While I just felt overawed, <br>Then I heard that she was expecting, and<br>She cut me out of her life, <br>She played that part so wonderfully well, <br>The dutiful Governor's wife.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">A boy was born in the early spring<br>And they christened him Billy Cole, <br>I wasn't allowed near a yard of him<br>And it ate deep into my soul, <br>I watched him grow from a distance then, <br>But she finally got me the sack, <br>She told the Governor I'd been spying<br>Whenever she lay on her back.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The years went by and I got me a trade, <br>But I lived right next to the Jail, <br>I'd watch them motor right by me then<br>And I felt myself turn pale, <br>They looked so fine in their motorcade, <br>With the windows wound right down, <br>My son grew tall by the prison wall<br>As the weeks and the years rolled round.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The hard times came, the hard times went, <br>I needed some extra pounds, <br>The government service advertised, <br>I applied, and they asked me round, <br>I must have done well in their questionnaire<br>For I got the job in the end, <br>They would call me, give me a time and place<br>And expect me to attend.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I didn't speak of my duties then, <br>It wasn't considered 'form', <br>It was only once in a purple moon<br>The official summons came, <br>I kept my secret and nobody asked, <br>I worked at my trade by day, <br>Then every so often the phone would ring: <br>'I'm sorry, I'm called away! '</div><div style="margin:10px 0">For twenty years I held my peace, <br>But followed my Billy Cole, <br>I drank in the bars where he would drink, <br>Sat deep in a corner stall, <br>I watched him mixing in company<br>I'd have warned him of, if I could, <br>But whenever I plucked the courage up<br>My tongue would turn to wood.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I heard his name start cropping up<br>With a gang in the old East End, <br>His mouth had taken a surly look<br>And he seemed like he needed a friend, <br>But his eyes were hard as the hardest flint<br>And his cheek was scarred to the bone, <br>He carried a blade and a razor strop<br>So I left him well alone.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">His mother, Caroline, sought him out<br>And begged him to go with her, <br>I heard him laugh in a quick retort: <br>'Go home to the Governor? <br>You must be mad, ' he told her then, <br>He's not been a father to me! '<br>And Caroline cried, and dabbed at her eyes<br>While I watched from under a tree.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I turned away - 'Too late, too late, '<br>I thought, 'if she'd only seen<br>That blood was thicker than water...'<br>But all that was a might-have-been.<br>The tears sprang as I walked away<br>And rolled at my cheek, undone; <br>The dye was cast and the lad was lost<br>Before I could find my tongue.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He killed a man in a brawl one day, <br>Over some cards that lied, <br>Was wrestled down to the floor and held<br>For the constable outside, <br>They took him down to the holding cells<br>And charged him there on the spot, <br>'It's Murder One, my lad, you'll need<br>All the guile that your lawyer's got.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He went in front of the Bailey, where<br>The balance of justice stands, <br>The trial was over before he looked<br>On down at his trembling hands, <br>The Judge came back, put on the cap<br>So black, right over his head, <br>Delivered the dreaded few words that he heard, <br>And those were... 'hanged by the neck...'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I got to visit him only the once, down<br>Where the condemned man waits, <br>He scowled as I stood by the door, and said: <br>'Have you come with your measuring tapes? '<br>I said, 'No son, but I had to come, <br>To right a very old wrong...<br>By God in heaven, I'll tell you now -<br>I'm your father, and you're my son! '</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I wept, he wept, and I left him there<br>To pay for his terrible crime, <br>And I... I took to my bed just then, <br>Pulled all the curtains and blinds, <br>A week, two weeks, I was woken then<br>With a summons, time and a place, <br>So I packed a bag in the early hours<br>Took up my travelling case.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">At dawn, I walked through the prison yard<br>Was shown through the bars and gates, <br>I spread my gear in an empty cell, <br>And opened my travelling case, <br>They brought him down with the chaplain then<br>So brave, but a little sad, <br>As I pulled the hood down over his eyes, <br>I swear that he called me - 'Dad! '</div><div style="margin:10px 0">24 September 2008</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=David+Lewis+Paget">David Lewis Paget</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=365764" data-title="Jack Ketch de David Lewis Paget" data-description="I was only sixteen, when I was seduced
By a woman of thirty-three, 
The Governor's wife at the Prisoner's Ball
And she offered to dance with me, 
I blushed, I stammered, and hung my head
But she moved with a fluid grace, 
She took my hand for the ..."></div>
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