Subject: The Chapman Report
From: Christopher W. Thomas (creatician@poetic.com)
Host: 207-172-227-121.s58.as1.dnb.erols.com
Date: Tues Dec 8, 1998 at 8:14PM

It was a day a full generation ago ...

When a fan's report rang hollow
Quieting forever a musical talent
Who still had so much left to vent

So many songs he'd already penned
So very many tunes and words ...
Some, with another, who did lend
His musical ability, so they'd be heard

... A team of magnificence unparalleled
To this very day ... even tho' some held
The opinion it was not always swell ...
On the whole ... the music really jelled

But the team stopped collaboration
At the end of the previous generation
So now two sets of teens have matured ...
Since the days when John and Paul endured

And a full eighteen years has now elapsed ...
Since Chapman's report rang out and John collapsed
Bullets lodged in his chest, stomach and back ...
In front of the Dakota ... a place now quite black

At least ... it is now ... in our minds ... placed in
Even though John had felt it to be a safe haven
For all his family ... Yoko and Sean and all ...
A quiet place where they sounded their call

And then that dreadful day came as Mark ...
First had John sign a record album as a lark
And then, later, took aim and fired his gun ...
Killing a musical genius on the spot ... done!!!

- Tristram (in tears)

(c) Christopher W. Thomas
3:40pm Tuesday, Dec. 8th, 1998