A Strange Courting

I never knew where she got the bones

But she spread them out in the grate,

And said to me that the way they fell

Would tell her about my fate.

I’d gone to her for the Tarot Cards,

I’d been told that she was a wiz,

But didn’t know what a wizard was

Till I met this girl called Liz.

 

She wasn’t a witch, she said to me,

For witches were too mundane,

They only had spells and love potions

And most of them were insane.

But she could look into the future with

The bones of the been and gone,

They helped to focus her visions on

The land of the to and from.

 

She spoke in riddles and teased my mind

In a language I didn’t know,

I asked her what I was headed for,

She said I had far to go.

She told me about my love, Christine,

And the secret plans she bore,

She wasn’t, as I had thought, pristine,

But had men in tow, by the score.

 

I asked her about the wedding that

We’d planned for along the track,

She said, I’d never be happy then,

Better get married in black.

She scattered the bones for a second time

And they fell about in the grate,

‘If you go on with your plans,’ she said,

‘You’re in for a dismal fate.’

 

‘There’s blood,’ she said, ‘and a kitchen knife,

A terrible slashing and cries,

‘I don’t know when, but it’s after then,

And a crazy look in your eyes.

Then someone lies on the kitchen floor

In a horrible pool of blood,

And footprints there, and a tipped up chair

Where somebody walked in mud.’

 

The wedding went as we’d always planned,

I never gave it a thought,

And Christine put on my wedding band

She didn’t think she’d be caught.

A man came round to the house one day

To say that Christine was his,

I took good note of his muddy boots

And suddenly thought of Liz.

 

He came at me with a kitchen knife

And said that he’d set her free,

I’d thought the knife had been meant for her,

But no, it was meant for me.

I seized his arm and we struggled then

While Christine stood in the door,

I somehow managed to turn the knife

And he lay dead on the floor.

 

‘Why did you set him loose on me,’

I cried, ‘the son of a gun,

What was the vow you made to me

That I’d be the only one.’

But Christine cried, and she knelt by him,

Her lover, down on the floor,

‘I told him before he shouldn’t come,

But he said that he loved me more.’

 

I was acquitted for self-defence

When the case came up for court,

And later I found that Christine went

She wasn’t the loyal sort.

I went again to the Oracle

And I spilled the bones with Liz,

While she laid on me a gentle kiss

And said, ‘It is what it is!’

 

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[Confuser]

David: Already laughing and pulled in with the first stanza. Your descriptions are spot on, the images of the witch, throwing out the bones; fantastic imagery. What another wonderful journey; you know I'm a fan David, and you've did it once again. Your imagination is one of a kind. I am never disappointed with your poems; you are unique, and I hope many more people will read. This like all of your poetry is amazing. The flow and meter is always there with fun twists and turns like an amusement park ride. Great writing. Thanks again. Dale

[Einstein Noodle]

:) another fine tale! well woven with rhyme and flow .. always enjoy your posts .. glad your protagonist survived to fight another day
glad Christine had gone away
E.

[B]

I love the closing line
IT's what it is

Life can be like that ........ with all the drama
We realize it all boils down to this final line

Great job David