Safe in its hiding place
Just to one side of the mantlepiece
But behind the bookcase
I was ready for bed
So I retired
Heavy with drooping eyes
My brain had fallen into a stooper
I was swooning on the edge of surprise
Too much now had I seen
That I must shut my eyes
And allow my soul, to
Travel through the veil
That separates the truth from the lies
It must have been two in the morning
When I awoke in a cold sweat
A knocking and a kind of groaning
Had commanded me up like a pet
I obeyed this call like a madman
And followed in like one hypnotized
I knew not what I was doing
Only that it was my duty to surmize
Unnervingly, no other sleepers had awoken
And I was all alone down stairs
Even my footsteps were soft words spoken
When to the incessant knocking I compare
What could it be I asked myself, or I would have
If some rational thought was working
Instead I traced the sound to the front room
Pushed open the old door kept on walking
The old musty room was a token
From the Dickensian age
The books filled the shelves floor to ceiling
Each had a well thumbed page
Suddenly with my presence came the silence
Like an awareness of my own form had broken
The incessant knocking ceased, and I questioned
Whether from a dream I had awoken
Thinking this must be some result of
The strong impression of the skull the past evening
Mixed and conjoined with the concoction of spirits
I had imbibed I turned and was already leavin'
When suddenly the knocking recommenced
Now with an urgency quite immense
And a rattle and a surge that that book shelf was purged
Of titles I had recently been quoting
One it was a Frankenstein's monster
The other Shakespeare's Hamlet
As I held them in my hands,
a chill ran up my spine
And I knew the box was now open
I cannot tell you now why, nor
How I found the courage to look
I suppose it was pure curiosity
Or some words I remembered from the book
But I approached the still rattling book case
And peered around its backside
And there on the floor was the skull box though no more
Was there any skull left inside
I looked to my left and my right
I looked under the case and to my fright
I saw the skull in the opposite corner
Determinedly facing the wall,
The rattling had long since ceased
Now what was left was a soft muttering beneath
The sound of an owl hooting ouside
The skull was distinctly grinding its teeth
With some trepidation I felt I could move
Formerly from the shock my bones had frozen themselves
But now I edged towards the open door
Thinking my self to remove for sure
Suddenly again without warning
The skull began to speak,
At first it was just a groaning,
But soon grew more strong out the weak
Take me back, it seemed to say
Take me back, take me back to my grave
They chopped off my head
And stole me away
Now I pray
Return me back to my grave
I want to live the life
That they stole
When they quartered my body and
Cut out my soul
Bring me back to life I'm pleading
Its in your hands I leave my needing
What was I to do
What was I to do?
How should I help the skull
I thought for one fleeting moment
Could I snatch it up
And lock it back in the box?
But then the thought occurred
The knocking would continue
Until forever and a day
And as if the skull
Some how perceived my thought
It turned and looked at me sideways
No there was no way I will be his haunt
I thought, and anyway surely I must try at least to save
Him from this torment and taunt
Why of all the men
Who could have been saved
Was he condemned?
Who amongst us is better than him
What if it were I in his place?
No comments:
Post a Comment