The Basement Stair

I’d rented out the basement  of

A house I used to own,

I hated renting places

I preferred to live alone,

I wasn’t good at choosing all

The tenants I would get,

And this guy was a doozy

The most eccentric of them yet.

 

But I must admit, the money

Paid the mortgage, right on time,

And I looked toward the future

When the house, it would be mine,

So I put up with his foibles

And his funny little ways,

He would sit down in his basement

And would disappear for days.

 

He had a little doctors bag

He wouldn’t be without,

With signs both astrological

And Druid runes, no doubt,

He always took it with him

When he wandered down the street,

Come skulking back, and talk about

The weirdo’s that he’d meet.

 

I knew something was going on,

I heard both screams and moans,

Seep up from out the basement

With the creak of drying bones,

At night they used to wake me up

And I’d lie there in dread,

And wonder what that movement was

Beneath my poster bed.

 

One night I crept on down and stood

Outside the basement door,

And heard strange voices muttering

Not one, but three or four,

I heard him raise his voice and say

In tones both harsh and grim,

‘I didn’t say you’d have your way,

But you can enter him!’

 

A peal of ghoulish laughter then

Rang out behind that door,

I bounded up those steps, ran like

I’d never run before,

Then lowered down the steel trapdoor

That sealed off that stair,

And laid the carpet over it,

You’d not know it was there.

 

I put up with a week of thumps

And cries of ‘let me out!’

But put my face close to the floor

And whispered, ‘Hey, don’t shout!

You keep those demons that you raised

Locked in your doctor’s bag,

Or maybe they will enter you,

And then, if so, that’s sad!’

 

I waited for those sounds to die

For upwards of a year,

Then poured a ton of concrete in

To seal that basement stair,

The house has sold, a Mr. Bould

Paid not enough, no doubt,

But said, ‘there’s not a basement there,

I’ll have to dig one out!’

 

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[MomzillaNC]

Creepy and rather Poe-esque in the theme. I could see this one on Chiller (a channel here devoted to macabre and frightening fair). I also wondered what innocuous mundane activity the poor tenant had more probably been engaged before being left to die a slow, horrible death because of the landlord's paranoia delusions.

[A Soap Mess Stories]

I could feel a bit of Poe in this horrifying tale...great tale DLP...

[R Smith]

a strange tale David, i guess we have to wonder what weird things occurred down in the basement but it made for a really entertaining poem of some quality, thank you, really enjoyed it :)

[Marie]

Well I'll bet Mr. Bould gets quite a surprise. Most landlords don't care what their tenants do as long as they get their rent on time.

In due course I suppose an exorcism will have to be performed...

[Thomas Fitzgerald]

A very ghoulish piece indeed, one that excites and terrifies, well done, great read.