Ghost Train Poem by David Lewis Paget

We were off to visit the Carnival,
Me, George and Julie Anne,
George was our mother's boyfriend,
(Though in fact, he was a man!)
I was seven and Julie six
And our Mum waved us goodbye,
She said she had some shopping to do
Told Julie not to cry!

George looked up to the heavens with
His fake, long-suffering grin,
For Julie cried a helluva lot,
She couldn't keep it in,
He took us down on the bus that night
There wasn't room to park,
The evening stars were coming out
It was getting kinda dark.

We saw the lights of the Carnival
And Julie's face lit up,
There were lots of rides and coconut shies
And Julie rode in a duck,
While George and I on the rifle range
Picked off some metal bears,
That raced across at the back, stood up,
Then fell to the pellets there.

There were clowns and men with megaphones,
And Chili Dogs with cheese,
And plenty of fluffy candy floss
That Julie stuck to her knees,
There was soda pop at this little shop
And we ate and drank our fill,
While George went up on a flying fox
And he said: ‘Now you be still! '

The evening mist came down at last
And George said we should go,
For Julie Anne was ready for bed
But I said, ‘Can't we go? '
I pointed over the other side
Where a stall was draped in black,
With a skeleton painted on the front
Near a man with a bowler hat.

The sign had said ‘The Ghost Train'
And it looked all creepy, too,
With little cars that rumbled along
With room on them for two,
So George went over and paid the man
Who gave us an awful leer,
Said, ‘Come on kids, here's an empty one,
We can sit you both down here.'

So I sat me down on the outside
Julie Anne was next to me,
The car jerked once, then rumbled off
Through a curtain, I said ‘Wheee! '
We travelled into the darkness
With the odd red flashing light,
A spider brushed against Julie's cheek
And she screamed in a sudden fright.

A skeleton stuck out its bony arm
And it made a horrible sound,
Much like the scream of a banshee
Then a monster spun it around,
Its head revolved on its shoulders
And its teeth were yellow and red,
As a witch on a broomstick flew at us
And sailed right over my head.

I think I must have been more than pale
As the train passed ghosts and lights,
And creepy-crawly horror things
That would give you an instant fright,
We went through a darkened spider den
It was then that I looked around,
No Julie Anne, just an empty seat
As the car went thundering down.

I called and called for Julie Anne
But I couldn't hear her scream,
Only the weird and ghostly sounds
As that train passed by in a dream,
But then it parted the curtain and
I found myself in the air,
With George just standing there startled
Running his fingers through his hair.

‘What have you done with Julie Anne? '
He shook me, made me sick,
‘She disappeared in the tunnel there,
It must be a Ghost Train trick! '
Then George looked round for the barker,
For the man in the bowler hat,
But the man had gone, and the lights went down
And the car sat, still on the track.

‘Your mother will kill me, ' George had cried
As he dived through the curtain there,
I followed him in, I wouldn't be left
With the crazies at the Fair,
We stumbled over the rails, and fought
The cobwebs and the freaks,
With George still calling out ‘Julie Anne! '
In a voice that sounded bleak.

We went right through, saw nobody,
And stood in a sweat outside,
When suddenly there was a rumbling
From a car that was still inside,
The curtain parted, the car came out
With a woman as old as Pan,
She staggered up with a walking stick
And she cried: ‘I'm Julie Anne! '

12 September 2012