Poetry - The Dowager Baroness

The Dowager Baroness

(The Demon’s Tale)

I awake to find myself on an old four-poster bed

In the room, the dark conceals the leer of one long since dead

Then I hear the music playing down, down deep inside my bones

And see the knife, the manacles, and the blood-spattered stones

A pig upon a unicorn, a mouse upon a frog

An ape upon a manatee, a snake upon a dog

All dance and twirl behind a girl upon a tiger red

And against the wall, a Norseman screams...

His lungs blood-eagled spread

Enter the Dowager Baroness, no mother to a son

Whatever she knows this day she knows what will be done

A belly dancing gipsy turns, her face is oozing bile

And the dancer laughs but disagrees; she thinks it's been a while

I cry in pain as my wrists are bound and tied with red hot wire

The chanting grows to fever pitch and the heat grows ever higher

I look for the one whose life I need to break these bonds of steel

But they threaten me with pain again, unless I keep the devil's deal

Then creeping up towards me, screaming hate and more she said

The Baroness bites her wrists and bleeds upon the bed

A banshee screams and flaps her wings, the witch enchants her spell

My arms are freed and now I know why I've been called from Hell

Her flaming tongue licks her lips with carnal base desire

Her lupine jaw extending - her face a canine liar

She removes her robes and I scent the bitch, just waiting for my seed

So, I dance and prance, and thrust with lust, for this is what she needs

But the Romany knew that hell-born seed is not lightly given to another

And she laughs at the witch for scheming - to be a demon's lover

Cold indifference then as I watch her struggle painfully on the floor

…but waiting in the shadows is a warlock by the door

My curse contained by magic from that source beside unseen

Her goal to spawn a hell-bred son this dark, evil, Halloween

The naked witch declares it's done and releases a black phantasm

And a host of shrieking furies pull me back to the gaping chasm

But knowingly I smile while falling to the dancing dead

Next time I know I'll stay awhile for I’d heard what she had said

“Born of a witch the demon's son will take the world of man

The mother too will rule anew, so none dare challenge her clan.”

Ho, ho, ho...

The pig astride the unicorn, the mouse inside the frog

The ape ate the manatee, and the snake bit the dog

All dance and twirl behind the girl upon the tiger red

And against the wall the Norseman silent...

Dried lungs blood-eagled spread

But the prophecy is incomplete, only I know how it ends

Her tricks upon the devil-spawn, just blasphemy that offends

The sire will rise again to eat their cold, vacant hearts

So, whatever happens, that Halloween…

Ha!

… I look forward to playing my part!