Tunnel Love

They said that he lived in the tunnel

That burrowed right into the hill,

That once saw a belching funnel

Of sulphur and black clouds spill,

The train on the iron railway

That chuffed its way into the past,

To just leave the eerie tunnel,

Smoke blackened and silent at last.

In closing the barbed wire entrance

To keep all the children at bay,

They’d come to the end, in repentance,

The end of the steam railway,

It lived in the lost generations

In memories lost to the young,

In dreams and in steam in the stations

The old locomotives lived on.

But something lived deep in the tunnel

That hadn’t been there long before,

A product of sulphur and brimstone,

A thing with a terrible roar,

It wandered at night in the meadows,

It tore the throats out of the sheep,

And left pools of blood by the hedgerows,

Returned to the tunnel, to sleep.

The town held a council of elders

The ones who remembered the train,

‘We have to get rid of the monster,

It comes out again and again,’

‘I think that the monster is lonely,’

Said one of them, in a remark,

‘He needs to be soothed to be healthy,

We’ll lure him out into the Park.’

They thought of the spinster called Mary,

A woman not gifted with looks,

In truth she was ugly and hairy,

She buried her head in her books,

‘She’d do very well for a monster,’

They all of them seemed to agree,

And rolled her in lashings of sulphur

And brimstone for her pedigree.

They tied her just outside the entrance

Attached to barbed wire in the fence,

The tunnel grew dark as an ulcer,

Both she and the townsfolk were tense,

The monster came out and he saw her

And made sniffing sounds in the dark,

And Mary had gone in the morning,

Back into the tunnel, not Park.

And now, when the roar of the monster

Is heard, there’s no gutting of sheep,

But merely a purr like a hamster,

That says he is going to sleep,

As a man needs the love of his woman

So a monster has needs to be quelled,

And it seems ugly Mary is happy

To be with the monster from Hell.

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[TPK Stories]

Sounds as if both found their happiness. Nice story.

[Robert Haigh]

Another dark, intriguing tale from your golden pen, David. The ending made me smile. Entertaining - as ever.

[Penlady]

there is a purpose and for everything under the sun....or in this case in the darkness of the tunnel...still a monster that can be soothed by a woman even a hairy one must own some heart! You've provided the ultimate match...

[Coyote Poetry]

I enjoyed this story. I liked Mary.
"As a man needs the love of his woman
So a monster has needs to be quelled,
And it seems ugly Mary is happy
To be with the monster from Hell."
The above lines. Nice ending. Thank you David for sharing the excellent tale.
Coyote

[Thomas Fitzgerald]

A happiness, found and a happiness deserved well done, good read.

[Avinash]

We all find our match as they say in the end. Glad to see some rare happy ending to your unusual story.

[emmajoy]

'They tied her just outside the entrance .. .. attached to barbed wire in the fence,...' great penultimate verse, this.

Just shows what a little thought and a lot of loving can do!

As ever you told the tale with great respect to meter and more. Plus, there seems to be a lighter hand in the language than sometimes in the past.

[Valentine]

Great tale, I loved the ending. So both are just purring now. Valentine