The Secret Book of the Dead
Стихотворение, которое было опубликовано в "сборнике мрачной поэзии"
под редакцией Нила Геймана и Стефана Джонса. Сборник назывался "Now We
Are Sick" (Теперь Мы Больны). Стихотворение Терри является пародией на
стихотворение Филипа Ларкина (Philip Larkin), которое начиналось
словами "They f*** you up, your Mum and Dad"
They don't teach you the facts of death,
Your Mum and Dad. They give you pets.
We had a dog which went astray.
Got laminated to the motorway.
I cried. We had to post him to the vet's.
You have to work it all out by yourself,
This dying thing. Death's always due.
A goldfish swimming on a stall,
Two weeks later: cotton wool,
And sent to meet its Maker down the loo.
The bottom of our garden's like a morg-you
My Dad said. I don't know why
Our tortoise, being in the know
Buried himself three years ago.
This is where the puppies come to die.
Puss has gone to be a better cat
My Dad said. It wasn't fair.
I think my father's going bats
Jesus didn't come for cats
I went and looked. Most of it's still there.
They don't teach you the facts of death,
Your Mum and Dad. It's really sad.
Pets, I've found, aren't built to last;
One Christmas present, next Christmas past.
We go on buying them. We must be mad.
They die of flu and die of bus,
Die of hardpad, die of scabies,
Foreign ones can die of rabies,
But usually they die of us.