Journey to Paradise

She was a queen of the old Levant,

Of a country, lost in shame,

Each page, blood-drenched of its history

Was burnt, to bury its name,

The King had gone on the last Crusade

With his knights to the Holy Land,

But locked her into a chastity belt

Forged by a blacksmith’s hand.

 

But Queen Fatima, known as ‘The B***h’

Was a testy-tempered w***e,

She raged and ranted at everyone

And chafed at the chains she bore,

She sent in search of the blacksmith to

Disable the King’s device,

But word came back that the man was hung

So he’d never work it twice.

 

The King was away for three long years,

Fatima’s tongue was a lash,

The sharpest thing in her box of tricks

Was the blade of the headsman’s axe,

Her courtiers’ popularity rose

And fell as her moods had bled,

And all had quaked at the first mistake

When she ranted, ‘Off with his head!’

 

She called for a Turkic Shaman to

Divine what her life would be,

Would she ever be rid of this chastity belt?

He cautioned her, ‘Wait and see!’

It wasn’t the answer she wanted, so

He was tied to a horse, and dragged,

Down to the river and weighted down

Tied up in a hessian bag!

 

A number of fortune tellers fell

To the rage of a Fatima fit,

Off to the gory headsman’s blade

Or cooked like a pig on a spit,

But then, the little court jester said

In a voice that was more like a whine,

‘Would it please the ear for a genuine seer,

At Delphi, I learnt to divine.’

 

‘You learned from the famous Oracle?

Come closer, this I must hear,

If the Oracle tells my future place,

Why, you have nothing to fear!’

‘My Oracle tells the key to your belt

Has been locked in the armourer’s cell,

The King had ordered its secret kept

Or he’d suffer the fiends from hell!’

 

They carried the armourer shackled in chain

To the queen, he knelt in shock,

‘The key, if you please, or on your knees

You will feel my steel on the block!’

He babbled and begged forgiveness, said

He was caught between King and Queen,

And gave up the key to chastity

So the queen danced free on the green.

 

She spent that night with the eunuch slaves,

She crawled around on her knees,

She fed an insatiable appetite

Doing whatever she pleased,

At dawn she called for the headsman

Who was given his gory task,

And watched as her night companions there

Fell one and all to the axe.

 

She took in the jester, asked for more,

What news of the King from home,

‘Alas,’ he said, ‘the King is dead,

The vultures pick at his bones!’

‘Then what will become of his widow queen,

Say now, or you’ll feel my curse.’

‘A knight in armour will come for you ,

A knight on a coal black horse!’

 

‘Will he be the bearer of tidings, or

Will he be the bearer of lies?’

‘This knight has only one deed to do,

He’ll bear you to paradise!’

She thought of the bliss of a loving knight

Who would take the queen as his right,

While she would rule with an iron hand

And he would make love at night.

 

The knight came thundering through the trees

One day, on his coal black horse,

The queen stood up where the parapet eaves

Hung over the watercourse,

She ordered the drawbridge down at once

And had the portcullis raised,

Then watched him galloping into the fort

And through the walls of the maze.

 

His horse came clattering up the steps

That led to milady’s tower,

She thought, ‘At last, we shall bed this night

In the depths of my shady bower.’

The knight, not raising his visor there

Nor even dismounted yet,

Raised his scimitar up on high

Then cleft her head from her neck!

 

Her body dropped like a stone, and bled,

Her head flew over the wall,

She saw his face as she stared ahead

The Jester, watching her fall,

Her head fell down through the cypress trees

And she thought that the breeze was nice!

Those final seconds would lead her mind

To the Garden of Paradise.

 

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[ms. barrie]

This is incredible! Truly amazing write, a ballad that was indeed a wonderful journey that i embarked on and one that i never wanted to end. This has to be one of my favorite writes on here, thank you for sharing. i'm definitely adding this to my favorites!

[Enid Blake]

Ha Ha - indeed 'off with ther head' lol.
Great David :)