Home » Poems » Terry Flood » Mr Slow Will Dine - Warning a Bit Grimm

Mr Slow Will Dine - Warning a Bit Grimm

[A parody of Mistletoe and Wine... apologies to Sir Cliff]
[‘Chorus’ indented for easy skipping if desired]


This night it will bring, a venomous sting
His life is long past, his cadaver’s grinning
He smells dreams of Santa and knows where to go
Innocents burning, their faces aglow

    Christmas time, Mr Slow will dine
    Children think he’s all in the mind
    But kids on the fire and hung from the tree
    Attest to his awful, grim reality

He seeks in no hurry, no haste, no scurry
Browsing each home with no fear nor worry
Each child he finds, dispatched without flurry 
Taken for minced meat or fillet or curry

    Christmas time, Mr Slow will dine
    Children think he’s all in the mind
    But kids on the fire and hung from the tree 
    Attest to his awful, grim reality

A hypnotic stare, no eyebrows, no hair
Two gaping nostrils but no nose is there
A gash for a mouth with one sabre incisor
A Christmas release for my silent insider

    Christmas time, Mr Slow will dine
    Children think he’s all in the mind
    But kids on the fire and hung from the tree 
    Attest to his awful, grim reality

I stare in awe as my Yule tide replacement 
Makes his return to this never-world basement
Looks in the mirror, no heed of the crack
And I’m all a quiver: it’s me looking back

    Christmas time, Mr Slow will dine
    Children think he’s all in the mind
    But kids on the fire and hung from the tree 
    Attest to his awful, grim reality

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Tom Cunningham

Date: 12/31/2020 12:54:00 AM

Cant be any grimmer than the year has been lol. good riddance to it. Happy New year Terry Tom

Terry Flood
Date: 12/31/2020 1:03:00 AM

Thanks Tom. As explained to Leo, the title should have been (as it now is) MR SLOW WILL DINE. A parody of Sir Cliff’s ‘Mistletoe and Wine’. Thanks again and a happy new year to you too, Tom. Terry

Leo Larry Amadore

Date: 12/30/2020 8:10:00 PM

I enjoy the rhythm and the clever rhyming in your poem, also the smoothness of its flow -- the Mr. Snow character/you you portray deftly, and eerily.

Terry Flood
Date: 12/31/2020 12:59:00 AM

Thanks Leo. Trouble is, I posted under the wrong title. He should have been MR SLOW. The whole thing being a play on ‘Mistletoe and Wine’. I’ve corrected that now. So annoying because I pondered for some time about whether it was just too grim for soup. Thanks again, Leo. Terry