
The Scream.
By P.B. Phillips
Simply climb the ladder, rung by rung.
In through the open window and take the picture from where it hung.
Back the way I came, and down to the car.
No need to rush, no need to drive that far.
Six years earlier, I did the exact same robbery, from the same Oslo museum.
Same lack of locks, alarms and security guards, never did I see them.
Norwegian police force, failed to find me; so lax, way beyond a joke.
No criminal mastermind, just a guy who’s a bit mad and a bit broke.
Although I had the picture hung in my flat, the cops they sent, not the best.
In the end I couldn’t sell it, carried it under my arm and gave myself up for arrest.
A Hundred and Sixty million dollars the Scream is worth, or so they say.
To me, it just looks like how I felt, each and every day.
I was a scallywag, then young footballer, before being a thief, a core celebre.
But eventually I was reduced to stealing the odd pair of socks, just an ordinary run of the mill pleb.
At just 57, off to heaven I go, hopefully I’ll meet my hero Edvard Munch.
I hope he has sandwiches, I’m hungry, as I died just before lunch.