Continuing International poetry month

The following offering from John Clarke's 'Even more complete book of Australian verse', which proves that McGonnigal was actually an Australian (see osymandias' last entry for comparison. In fact, it's at it's most funny if you read his first)

I'm extremely sorry to have to say
A terrible thing happened the other day
On the otherwise beautiful Port Phillip Bay
An enormous but unspecified degree of destruction
Has poll-axed the bridge which was under construction
And a number of souls have been spirited away

Oh appalling thing! Ye girders immersed!
The Westgate Bridge has completly bursed
Such dreadful events could ne'er be rehearsed
How distressing for the perished! Honour their memory!
Some of them probably served with Montgomery
Although of all their experiences this would be the worst

It was said by experts that the bridge was alright,
But boy were the experts in for a fright,
When bits of the aforementioned sank out of sight,
With a crash and a hideous graunching sound,
Many fragments on the sea bed later were found,
And the Westgate Bridge was in a desperate plight.

The Reverend George Gillfilland saw the bridge begin to sway,
A popular and highly moral man, which no-one can gainsay.
For the emergency telephone he did reach without delay
And he nobly sought assistance from the suitably qualified.
'Our gracious span is in grave peril! Do something!' he cried,
Which the people of Melbourne remember to this very day.

The immortal William Shakespeare is needed at such times,
Whose understanding of tragedy is surpassing fine,
Such as, for example, certain bits of Othello, which are truly most sublime.
Only he this catastrophe in its magnitude so vast could describe,
Although ironically he's dead and in the past -
A loss which the people of Melbourne will mourn for a very long time.

A pall hangs over Melbourne which can ne'er be blown away,
And which no sensible person has any reason to gainsay,
And the pall is most particularly prominant over Port Phillip Bay
Where a combination of dreadful weather
And a lack of adequate bracing together
Bought such tragic results on October the fifteenth 1970 which was not a happy day.