Last WordsA Poem by David Lewis PagetThe
ice drew lace on the window panes We
couldn’t see out for a week, The
air had frozen and blocked the drains And
my tears were ice on my cheek. ‘Come
back to bed and forget her now She’s
been gone since the crescent Moon, Her
passing has freed you from your vow Yet
your grief’s pervading the room.’ ‘I
need to know what was in her mind On
the day that she passed away, She
left no message of any kind Why
she swallowed the draught that day. But
you were there when she combed her hair, You
were there for the last words said, She
must have told of her deep despair Or
she wouldn’t have ended dead.’ ‘You
knew my sister had many moods, You
knew, before you were wed, She’d
lie, consulting the ancient runes While
hiding deep in her bed. Her
superstitions were known, it seems Her
hold on the world was loose, She
drifted half in and out of dreams But
death was what she would choose.’ I
shook my head and I walked away, And
ploughed through the drifted snow, Crunched
a trail through the empty streets To
the cemetery gates at Stowe, The
clouds were grey in the sky above And
the snow built up in the trees, While
headstones peered from their icy tombs Like
sinners, down on their knees. I
scraped the ice from the headstone face That
said ‘Elizabeth Jane,’ ‘An
Angel fallen to earth,’ it said ‘While
her heart was wracked with pain.’ A
shadow fell on the marble face As
I turned, but no-one was there, Then
words appeared like an act of grace, ‘My
sister killed me - Beware!’ The
horror showed on my face, I rose To
follow the tracks I’d made, But
somebody else had left their prints Leading
away from the grave, The
tracks were made at a frantic pace And
they forged on way ahead, Leading
me through the cemetery gates But
Elizabeth Jane was dead! A
storm blew up on the way back home And
had turned the house to ice, I
forced my way up the frozen stairs To
confront Margot Desize. But
she lay frozen with eyes a-stare And
a glance said she was dead, The
horror fixed in her final glare As
a shadow stood by the bed! David
Lewis Paget © 2013 David Lewis PagetReviews
|
StatsAuthor
Related WritingPeople who liked this story also liked..
|