True story

Fatal Accident On Oxford Street, 1995

All around the people gazed in numbers,
Viewing the gruesome sight.
Their eyes were glazed with horror at the spectacle
Of the man, made dead on Oxford Street.

Blood and brain were steaming in the cold
And filthy curb where his skull was smashed
Beneath the large black wheels of a double-decker bus,
Which, unknowing, had lumbered off into the Yuletide rush.

Some, more delicate sorts began to vomit,
While others clasped their loved ones close to them.
All those seeing stood rigid in their shock, apart from a policeman.
He radioed for help above the crowd's awed hush.

"Fate. Acc. on Oxford Street," said he, officially.
"Better get a hose down here as well."
He switched into routine crowd control,
Moving-on dazed gazers back into the crush.

The headless corpse lay there, still and quiet.
A witness said, ?'I saw him slip and fall
Awkwardly and sideways in the shove and jostling -
He could not see - his hands were full of gifts.'

He had, last minute, bought all these in Selfridges,
To celebrate the season of goodwill.
Now a dramatic wailing ambulance pulled-up
And carted-off the corpse of Christmas present.