Monday, May 6, 2013

The Ballad of Roger Brown



I once met a man named Roger Brown,
Who came from lands afar:
He brought to me the secrets of life
Concealed inside a jar.

"Hello there, young man," he spelled out loud
A sound of curious shade
And mocked me with a sinister smile
While with the jar he played.

"Would you like to see what I have here,
Here brought to your delight?"
"You take nothing from a stranger," said I
"My mother taught me right".

"No stranger am I," he cried; "in truth
Your kin, and dear, dear friend".
He held out the jar to me in vain:
I would not condescend.

"Just answer, and from you I will take
The jar: just who are you?"
He grinned, then I knew; those ruddy eyes
Their objects they were two.

"My name, my friend, is Roger Brown;
I have come from lands afar
And bring the secrets of this life
To reveal from out this jar."

"Your name, my friend, is, I know, Old Nick;
To me you are no friend,
Go away, down to the lands afar:
Your venom do not spend."

Still he grinned a broad and rotten grin,
He raised his arm, and spang
on the ground the jar threw down, and thus
The jar, it burst with a bang.

From the shards came sounds of varied sorts,
A spate of sounds pell-mell
That stemmed from sundry strata of earth
From heaven through to hell.
The shards then started to melt and thaw
And I, all while he laughed
And laughed, got one of the shatters up
And hid it very daft.


He laughed, and then was gone in a flash.
I saw myself so clearer
In the piece of jar remaining here:
Inside there was a mirror!

I once met a man named Roger Brown
Who came in mists of steam:
He tried to fool me, but I fooled him 
He came to me in a dream.

Yet he did change my life, for the shard
He left me was a gem:
For in that little shiny fragment
I found out who I am.

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