THE WITCH’S TALE

Once there was a maiden fair

Whose beauty was beyond compare.

Gentle natured, loving, caring

She gained great joy in sharing.

She fell in love with a local lad

And that was when things went bad.

Another loved this lad as well

One in whose heart dark evil did dwell.

When the lad the fair maid chose

Deep rage in the dark one’s soul arose.

The dark one watched the fair maid and lad

While her hatred began to drive her mad.

She swore that the fair maid would pay

For stealing the one she loved away.

The fair maid became a loving mother

Envied and hated by the evil other.

The evil one cast a fearsome spell

And the fair maid’s child soon ill fell.

Cure after cure in vain was applied

But despite it all, the child still died.

The dark one gloated with secret glee

At the fair maid’s heartbroken misery.

But still hunger for vengeance burned

In the heart of the one who had been spurned.

She studied the dark arts both night and day

In a search for a mean to make her rival pay.

Then one night with a demon she made a pact

For the time had finally come for her to act.

She got a sly notion into her head

And soon cunning rumors began to spread.

That she’d seen the maid dancing in the moonlight

While chanting spells that had given her a fright.

The villagers, being simple, fell for the evil one’s lie

They declared the maid a witch, said that she must die.

One day while the maid’s husband was away

The evil one her plan’s finally put into play.

The evil one told the villagers now was the time

To make the wicked maid pay for her crime.

They beat the maid till she fell to the floor

Then imprisoned her behind a heavy steel door.

Dank, dark and cold was that gloomy room

And somehow the maid knew it would be her tomb.

They broke the poor maid’s fingers and back

And she spent untold hours being stretched on the rack.

The cell was right beside the guardhouse latrine

And the poisonous fumes began to turn her skin green.

The guard came to drag her to the torturer one day

Only to discover that in the night she’d passed away.

They buried her in an unmarked pauper’s grave

For they swore that she’d had no soul to save.

As for the evil one, with her lies and her schemes

She began to experience terrifying dreams.

Of a figure who came to her, night after night

A figure that was truly a horrifying sight.

Body bent and disfigured, fingers all out of joint

And those misshapen fingers at the evil one did point.

From that eerie figure no sound did the evil one hear

But after many sleepless nights the meaning came clear.

Not till she admitted her lies would the dreams cease

Then, and only then, would she have some peace.

She was burned alive when it was learned that she’d lied

A high price to pay for revenge for wounded pride.

And as for the maid, on a dark, quiet night

You just might see her dancing in the moonlight!

Copyright: Marantha Jenelle

12-17-2011