Glug!

Gerald Gee

BLUE MONDAY
http://smilingsally.blogspot.com/
GLUG!

Sometimes, I imagine an era, way before our own;

The eighteen-hundreds I am thinking of.

And in some mysterious way I find a picture on the ground,

A picture like the one you see above.

To our modern eye this cartoon is as plain as it can be;

'A man with a mobile sends an SOS'.

Two centuries ago it wouldn't make a bit of sense

And I would only make a puzzled guess.

*

I'd know the man was drowning (well, it says so, underneath)

And death by drowning can't have changed that much.

But why does he point at an object at this most dramatic time?

He doesn't only point; he seems to touch!

It must be soap, I'd ponder, that he's holding in his hand,

But I'd find it odd that soap is coloured black!

So he must be in the bath! If so, the water is too deep,

For merely scrubbing arms and legs and back!

No not a bath! He's fully clothed! He must be in the sea!

But in the sea with soap and in his coat!

Maybe he fell off a liner when it rolled and pitched a bit

And now he's found out that he cannot float!

*

And so I'd ponder, gazing long at the scrap held in my hand,

But the answer never would be clear to me.

For how could I imagine the life we live today

And a joke concerning our technology!

*

(And here I am, pondering!)

*

Another delightful Gerald Gee cartoon here:

http://rinklyrimes.blogspot.com/2009/09/in-flesh.html

See tomorrow's blog for some scarlet jewelry.