steve1223 Poetry (718)

I once had life
All around
The hustle and bustle
Crying and laughter
Love peered out
From my windows
And there
On my manicured lawn
They sat
With their picnic
Sharing
All joining in
And then
Slowly
They moved
I fell into disrepair
And now
I sit
Lonely
Neglected
Sad

Quickly she handed over the baby and showed him where the gardens were. The moment he was gone she ripped her dress, pushed her hair into disarray and splashed water on her face to simulate crying. The furniture she overturned and scattered all around. Then she ran, waddled really, to the King’s chambers.

“Help! Help!” she screamed as she entered, “he has taken our baby. He broke into my chambers and boasted that Rumpelstiltskin takes what he wants. He was heading for the gardens.”

The King despatched his men with orders to show no mercy. How dare anyone touch the Royal Prince. To do so would mean instant death. Heavily armed guards arrived in the garden. There they found Rumpelstiltskin as expected. Poor Rumpelstiltskin not expecting any trouble, thought that they had come to take him to his party. He was cut to pieces where he stood and his remains fed to the dogs.

The King and Queen lived, you might say, happily ever after. The truth about Rumpelstiltskin and his being betrayed was never told. Some time later two brothers, I think they were called Grimm, but I’m not sure, passed this way and they told the story quite different.

The reality was that Rumpelstiltskin was a poor innocent who had tried to help the Miller’s daughter and in return was betrayed and his good name besmirched.

Now I can hear you ask, what about the miller? Well I know that this is not part of the story but seeing that you asked.

Once his daughter was gone he suddenly found himself with money left over. No longer was all his labour going into providing for his lazy offspring. When he had enough money he decided to follow his dream, his main love. Drinking and being jolly. He opened a drinking establishment that he owned and not leased from the King.

This establishment he decided to call ‘The Miller’s Arms Hotel’. His fame quickly spread and people came from all around. Why he was so famous that they came from two counties over even.

Did he ever hear from the King and Queen? You guessed it, not even once. He lived to a ripe old age still being jolly to his last day.

Now you are the first to have been told about the shameful treatment of Rumpelstiltskin and how the truth was turned around. This is the whole truth and nothing but the truth.






THE END

What is left to say? I had such high hopes for you. You were shaped after my image, perfect in appearance. When I saw you alone I made a help mate for you. Male and female I created you, two halves of a perfect single unit. I gave you free will for I wanted your willing worship, not to be forced into it.

Such a little thing I asked of you. I gave you everything, dominion over all the earth and everything on it, in the air or in the waters. The only thing you were not to touch was the tree of knowledge. Yet you did and then had the gall to blame the female. You had free will and could have refused. This was the start of the long slide.

Your son Cain killed his brother Abel out of petty jealousy. Abel sacrificed his best lamb to me while Cain only sacrificed poor left over hay. It saddened me to refuse his offering. I had thought that he would learn.

Things just became worse from there on. I still loved my creation but they caused me such great sadness. Generation after generation they turned away from me until all that was left was Noah and his family. Them I would save and the rest were wiped from the face of the earth.

I grieved so much that I sent a rainbow as a covenant that never again would I drown the world. Once again though I was disappointed as one by one they turned away from me again.

This time I sent my son to be an offering for your sins. He went through great suffering so that you could join me here in Heaven. For a while things improved but again you turned away from me. You performed abominable acts on your fellow human beings.

No more. I can take no more. I love you so much that I cannot destroy you again but I can also no longer live and watch what you do to each other. You even use my name in it’s various guises to justify your evil ways.

You are now on your own for I will no longer be here. When you cry to the Heavens there will be no-one here to hear you. I still hope that somehow you will find your way and survive and become what I hoped you would be.

Good bye

Time moved on and before you knew it one year had passed since that time down in the cellars. Of course the Queen had totally forgotten about the promise she had made. Her life for the last year consisted eating and sleeping. She had grown so big that there was no room in bed for the King so a second bed was placed near hers.

Many a wife thought that this was a great idea to get a troublesome husband out of their beds. Once out of the marital bed there was suddenly a lack of marital duties performed. This was a period of time the called the dark twin bed ages. Some husbands banded together and invented what they called the ‘King size bed’. This bed was much wider and many husbands reclaimed their marital rights. But this is another story altogether.

Right on time the wizened little man presented himself for his promised reward. All year long he had been waiting for this, to claim what was his due. It had taken weeks for his fingers to heal after that night. Even now there was some scarring still evident.

“I am here for my promised reward,” said the man. “You may present me to the guests as Rumpelstiltskin.” A smile lit up his wrinkled face at the thought of the festivities to come.

As mentioned earlier, she had completely forgotten about her promise. Now suddenly the thought terrified her. What if he was to let on to the King the truth about those nights. Surely the King would be so angry at being deceived that he would torture and kill her. Or even worse, deny her food until she faded away into nothingness.

As all these terrible thoughts ran rampant in her head, suddenly a plan was formulated. Not only was she fat, ugly and lazy but also without the slightest twinge of conscience, and as devious as a sewer rat.

“Please Sir Rumpelstiltskin can you take my baby out into the garden and let him enjoy the sunshine with you. While you are doing that I will arrange a grand reception befitting a fine man of your high station.” On and on dripped the words of honey until
Rumpelstiltskin had no choice but to agree.

Again, as the night before, the wizened little man arrived. He could not stand to see her so unhappy so out of the goodness of his heart he once again agreed to help her. All she had left was a ring on her little finger. This seemed to please him and she happily handed it over knowing that once again she had cheated death.

Same as the night before he sat himself down at the spinning wheel, muttered some sort of incantation to himself, cracked his knuckles and started spinning. In went the straw and out came the gold.

Far into the night he worked. Straw after straw he spun into gold whilst in the corner the miller’s daughter slumbered. So deep was her slumber that enormous sounding snores escaped the room and roamed the castle. It was whispered amongst the servants that surely a dragon must reside down near the dungeons.

Finally after many gruelling hours of work he finished. He looked totally exhausted and slowly raised himself from the stool. A quick look around to make sure he had not missed any and he was gone.

When the King entered the room there was no hiding the greed that shone forth from his eyes when he saw all the gold. Surely he must be the richest man in the entire world. When he looked at the miller’s daughter she looked almost ravishing to him.

It was at this point that he decided that he would give her one more room, nay, he would give her the entire cellars to fill with gold. Should she succeed he would make her his Queen. If she failed, then alas, she would die.

The day was spent in feasting, much like the day before. Today though the miller’s daughter was outfitted with the finest of clothes. Clothes fit for a Queen. The Ladies of the court tried not to show their disgust as the King fawned over her. Every time the King kissed her it was all they could do just to keep their food down. However the King was totally oblivious to all this. To him, through his gold affected eyes she was beautiful and desirable.

All day long while the feasting was going on the servants were busy filling the cellars. Room after room was filled with straw, from floor to the ceiling leaving barely enough room to walk in.

That night she was shown the cellars. Fifteen huge rooms in all, and the prize if she succeeded was to become Queen. Should she fail, the death she was promised was more horrific than she could ever imagine. As the King and his guards retreated she fell to the floor. This time her wails were so loud that surely every castle ghost was awoken.

She was so relieved that she curled up and slept for the rest of the night, knowing that she was safe. The little man had saved her. In the morning when the King arrived he was astonished. There was gold from floor to ceiling and in the middle of it all slept the Miller’s daughter. Where once there was straw now there was gold. Shiny, yellow gold.

Now, she was still as ugly as she had been the night before, but somehow, all this gold seemed to make her less, shall we say unappealing, to the King’s eyes. Greed for gold seems to have that power. In his mind he was calculating how much richer he had become overnight. His calculations placed it in the region of 150 Duros ( equivalent to approximately 75 billion dollars of our present day money.)

This amount of wealth staggered him. Only the Kings with the largest of kingdoms might come close to this, and lets face it, this kingdom was rather small and had been extremely poor. His mind went into overdrive digesting everything that had happened.

All day the Miller’s daughter was wined and dined and kept in absolute luxury. She only needed to hint at something and it was instantly brought to her. One of the greatest delicacies that could be had was Mountain oysters (sheep balls) and due to their rarity reserved mainly for the King and sometimes his favourites. These she consumed by the dozens. There were bowls of Durian fruit and mangosteen, aronia berries and camu camu berries. In fact she was denied nothing and given everything her heart desired.

Never before had she lived like this. Strange and exotic foods that tempted and pleased her palate. Wines of the finest kinds from all over the known world. By the end of the day for the first time in her life she was almost full.

That night the King took her to a room that was twice the size of the one from the night before. Like before the room was filled with straw. Every nook and cranny had straw in it , there was barely room for the spinning wheel.

Once again she was ordered to turn the straw into gold, or she would die a most horrible death. A death so horrible that she would not be able to imagine it. As like the night before, when the door clanked shut, she collapsed.

Again tears flowed from her eyes as sob after sob shook her body. On and on she cried as before, praying, pleading, and once again she swore that she would change if only someone would help her.

Spears of tomorrow shatter the dreams of yesteryear
Trampled by Gods with feet of clay
Screams echo across time and space
Blended with tears of regret and sorrow
And there, amidst the burning ruins
Lays my heart, trampled into the dust
Cast aside, uncaring and callous
As if by this act alone history is changed
Past erased and rewritten onto a blank slate
The earth still keeps spinning, life goes on
Except … for me … I am … on the brink

As night started to fall she became more desperate. It was rumoured that wild animals roamed the night. These animals were so fierce that they could devour a fully grown human with one gulp. She did not want to verify the truth of the rumour. Now there was only one place left for her to go. She would have to walk to the castle and throw herself on the mercy of the King. That she would walk that distance showed how desperate she really was.

By the last light of the day she hurried to the castle. She only just arrived in time, had it been a few minutes later the drawbridge would have been raised. The heavy gates creaked open as she was given entry. For once luck was with her as the King would see only one more supplicant and she was the one. She was shown into the Great Hall of Justice. There the King sat on his throne looking ever so regal.

Immediately she fell to her knees with her head on the ground and started wailing. Tears were streaming down her face making a puddle on the floor. The sobs became louder and louder, echoing throughout the hall.

The King sat there astonished. He was totally flummoxed. Who in the name of all the Gods was this ugly creature. Never in his life had he seen anything like this. Admittedly, he had led a sheltered life, never venturing past the castle walls, but this thing, it was the height of ugliness. Even his pigs seemed pretty in comparison.

“Please your Great and Noble King, our Lord and Master, The most Supreme Ruler, please help me. I have no home and I am starving.” By this time her hunger pangs were most excruciating. She had gone for four hours without food. “I will do anything that you might require. Please give me food, I will do anything.”

The King was getting more and more disgusted with this creature. He was ready to have her thrown over the castle walls. He did not even want her in his dungeons.

“Bah! Unless you can turn straw into gold you are no use to me.” This statement he thought was rather funny. He let out a small laugh. The Ladies of the court laughed. The nobles of the court laughed, the knights laughed and the Jester laughed and capered about.

By now she was so desperate for food that she was willing to say and promise anything. “Your Royal Highness, I can spin you the finest gold out of straw. Anything at all for you my Lord. I will spin any amount you want but I am too weak. If only you give me food your Graciousness I will do it for you.”

“Did you say that you can spin me gold out of straw?’

Suddenly there was instant silence in the Great Hall. The Miller’s daughter was too concerned to notice what was happening, to realise what deadly ground she was treading on.

This story, as all these type of stories begin, happened once upon a time, in a land far, far away. It is almost lost in the mists of time. There lived a Miller and, as far as Millers went, he was not a bad fellow. His only vice, if you could call it that, was that he was rather fond of a drink and at every opportunity he enjoyed one, or more.

He did not own his own mill but leased it from the King. Not that this stopped him from being jolly. He was rather round and laughed most of the time. He was jollier still when he was imbibing.

The only bane in his life was his daughter. She was fat and to be truthful rather ugly. Now you might say that saying this is not nice, well, if she stood next to a donkey’s behind the only way you could tell them apart was that the donkey has a tail. Her chin had multiple chins and her face was covered with pustules and her upper lip had the makings of a great moustache.

I should also mention that she was lazy. Lazy is actually an understatement. She was loathe to leave her bed, except when it came to eating. Were it not for the fact that food was not brought to her bed I believe she would have stayed in there. Grunting and groaning she would drag herself out of bed and make her way to the kitchen. Once she had eaten she would make her way back to bed, to rest after her exertions.

The Miller was at his wits end. What to do? How to get rid of her? She was eating him out of house and home, there was barely food left for him. When it came to eating her laziness disappeared. Bowl after bowl of food vanished, straight down her gullet. The situation was getting so bad that he was even running out of money for drinking. Desperate times called for desperate measures.

It was her habit that when she finished eating she would go outside for nature’s call. When she went outside to use the outhouse he locked the doors and barred the windows. To her surprise she could not get back in. No amount of begging and pleading or crying moved the Miller to open the door.

Repeatedly she walked round and round the house looking for entrance but it was securely locked and shuttered. She tried approaching the neighbours but they knew her habits only too well. They quickly locked their doors also and barred their windows. Nobody wanted her in their house.

All my life I’ve worked so hard
To try and make more money
Most of my time I’ve spent at work
None left for socialising

The harder I worked, the less I had
The cost of living rising
House I bought, much too grand
The mortgage nearly killed me

Furnishings had to be the best
Most cost a King’s ransom
Persian rugs upon the floor
And on the walls hung Masters

In the garage cars I had
A Ferrari, Porsche and Jaguar
There they sat, alone, unused
For I had no time to drive them

Lonely house and lonely rooms
And a bed I was lost in
No-one here to share with me
This journey through a lifetime

Too late I see as I near the end
How sad was my existence
I was not living life
Just barely stumbling through it

If I had this time again
I’d add up my riches different
Possessions in the end mean naught
Count love that’s all around you

In places the ceilings were sagging giving the appearance that they were ready to fall any time. There was still furniture, although it was covered in mildew, rubble and dust.

The stairs creaked ominously as I slowly ascended. Although the stairs appeared to be quite solid I still took extreme care. It would not do to break my leg in here as it would be a long time, if ever, before help would arrive.

The last set of stairs leading to the attic were a bit rickety, but I managed to get up there. At the top of the stairs was a corridor leading to the back of the house. I was not interested in that, only the door facing me which was to the room I had seen from outside.

I had to really exert myself before the door gave way and opened. What had I expected? Not what greeted me. It was just a plain room with a double bed and a rather large wingback chair. This floor of the house had fared better as there was less rubble however dust was still piled everywhere. I settled down to await darkness.

As the sun settled and the house cooled there were creaks and groans throughout the house. I knew it was only the house expanding and contracting, all very natural. What was not natural was the light coming from the corner.

Slowly the light solidified and I could make out that it was a woman. A spectacularly beautiful woman, albeit a ghost, nonetheless a stunning woman. Ever so slowly she moved over to the window and stared out. As she moved away from the window she wiped her hand across her eyes, as if wiping away a tear.

I had never seen anything like this before and I was rooted to the spot. As if becoming aware of me she turned towards me. Her piercing blue eyes stared into mine, stared as if looking deep down into my soul.

Her face broke into a smile, more than just a smile, it was an expression of utter joy. She put her arms out as if to embrace me and as she did she slowly faded away.

I know it sounds improbable, even impossible, but in those few seconds I had fallen deeply in love. How can you fall in love with a ghost? I don’t know and even now I still ask myself that question, but somehow I felt as if I knew her and had known her for a lifetime.

I came back night after night but never saw her again. I felt I had lost a part of myself, an important part. For nearly a year I returned every night, until the demolished the house. Time had moved on and so I had to also. Some things have to be relegated to memory.

Slowly I became aware of my surroundings again. Nothing had changed while I was musing over my memories. Old Mrs Beaumont still sat exactly in the same position as before even though the best part of two hours had passed. She had probably wet herself by now, as is her wont.

Still too early to go out for a walk, to escape, so to speak. No good rushing this, they will only catch you and then give you sedatives to “calm” you. Another memory might kill some more time.

My eyes wander around the room, it’s a pleasant room as far as rooms go, but it’s a room in a retirement home. Light flowery curtains and matching flowery lounges and chairs. I’ve never been a lover of flowery furniture, it reminds me of old people.

The old people, well they are sitting here staring off into space. Waiting. Waiting for what? The next meal, or the next visit from their families, the visit that never comes. Or possibly just waiting for death to tap them on their shoulder and beckon them to follow.

I didn’t want to be here, did not belong here. Yes, I probably was just as old as some and older than others but this is not where I should be. My home burned down while I was shopping, came home to smouldering ruins, everything I owned was gone. I had nowhere to go so they shoved me in here. Bloody governments, always take the easy way out.

Here they don’t even let you go out for a walk in case you get lost or you get hurt. You are like a prisoner in maximum security. The doors all use a code to open, not that anyone ever tries to leave, they just sit there like zombies, but just in case someone does. Little do they know that I already know the code. When I am ready I will go for a stroll.

In the meantime I cast my mind back over my life. So many memories, good, bad and indifferent. It gives me pleasure to pull one out, dust it off and examine it from all angles.

I remember an old house, not sure if it was built out of stone or brick, but I do remember that it was rendered with grey cement render. It was three stories high and derelict, situated on an acre of overgrown grounds. No-one ever went near it for strange things were said to happen there.

I have always been drawn to the unusual, the not so normal. For days on end I would find myself near the house, looking through the overgrowth trying to glimpse the house. I fought my way through the garden to get closer to the house. The house just sat there like a huge brooding animal staring at me with sightless windows. I saw nothing there to cause me alarm.

Finally I decided to go there at night. As I approached the house I could feel the hairs on my nape rise. Something was different. Suddenly I saw it, a face at the attic window. I could not make out whether it was male or female, just a pale face, almost white.

My heart was beating so fast I thought it would escape my chest. I almost passed out before I realised that I was holding my breath. Slowly the face turned away from the window and was gone, not to return that night.

The next day I decided that I had to return to the house and enter it. I would go in while there was still daylight and await darkness up in that attic room.

It was easy to enter the house as a rear door had been left ajar. The reputation of the house assured that no-one would approach let alone enter it.

Inside the house was in a sad state of disrepair. Plaster had come away from the walls and lay scattered on the floor.