Human Cannonball - Loudon Wainwright III

Emmanuel Zucchini Senior

The Human Cannonball

Died in Sarasota Monday

Eighty-four was all

From Italy in Thirty-four

John Ringling brought him here

Broken neck in Fifty-one

Ended his career

But in those years in between

Seventeen in all

Few flew as fast or as far

As the Cannonball

Fifty-eight yards and one foot

Was the distance that he went

Fifty-four miles in an hour

The speed that he was sent

Two of his brothers and two daughters

Nine grandchildren in all

And the one great grandchild

Survive the Cannonball

He died on Monday where he lived

It happens to us all

Shot through the air expecting nets

A flight and then a fall