Terpsickore
An Experiment in Rhyme
She’s not the girl he wanted,
she who haunted him and stalked
him, then talked him into dance.
Their romance? sparked by music!
He, too thick to see danger.
This dark stranger smiled brightly
and showed nightly as a friend.
She shunned all other suitors,
none would suit her sole mad plan;
Now no man but him would do!
No one who was there could know
she would sow a deadly seed:
burning need that would not heal,
No appeal could make her bend.
She hounded him for each dance,
not a chance he could withdraw,
with a claw she drew him in
They would spin and rock and roll,
conjoined souls that spun madly,
oh so sadly through the night,
Such a sight they must have been.
Lights spun flashing like bright stars
or fast cars that danced along
blaring song in 4/4 time,
bending rhyme to join the din:
Her mad grin and flying hair
pinned him there to her dead breasts;
stealing rest for their dark sin.
Laughter died, it sowed great fear
though no tear fell from her face —
but black lace slid down her jaw
Her sharp caws like hungry crows
soon arose to fill the air
leaving there the foulest smell,
Acrid Hell: her true perfume.
Oh, dead she was and knew it.
Laughing through it, his soul tired,
breath expired, his knees so weak;
She with shrieks and wails of joy;
Just a ploy to reel him in
and again send them to dance —
Their romance became his doom.
Now he shivers here so blind
he can’t find his tongue to speak
Nor his cheek, his lips or toes
Oh, his nose has disappeared,
and his beard is also gone!
Every bone has slipped away!
Who can say where right has gone?
The room atilt with panic,
sharp satanic laughter rose —
as her hose slid off then down.
Last, her gown; he was lost in
seas of sin and mad desire,
Flesh on fire that burned ‘til dawn.
All have gone now to the snow.
Alas, when all had ended
she pretended all was well,
bid farewell and danced away.
Who can say where she calls home?
Some dark tome may list her place,
Show her face, mayhap her name.
Just the same, we’ll never know.
