Ninety Steps

I said that there only were ninety steps

To the drop at the edge of the cliff,

As long as she didn’t take ninety one,

She wouldn’t end up as a stiff.

She’d only been blind since the accident

When the car got away from me,

Went rolling, gambolling on down the hill

And ending up flat by a tree.

And Cindy went straight through the windscreen

She shattered the glass she went through,

She screamed out to me that she couldn’t see,

She cried, ‘I’m just looking for you!’

But I was sat pinned by the steering wheel

I couldn’t get out if I tried,

I said, ‘Don’t distress, they’ll fix you up yet,’

One look at her eyes said I lied.

We came up to move in to ‘Ocean View’,

The house overlooking the sea,

I thought that the air would be good for us,

And the view would be okay for me.

I paced out the steps to the edge of the cliff

And reported to Cindy as such,

As long as she kept to her boundary

She wouldn’t fall over - (Not much!)

It isn’t much fun when your partner is blind

When everything has to be done,

She took it for granted that I wouldn’t mind

So sat on the porch in the sun.

I washed and I cooked and I tidied the house,

While she took her lessons in braille,

My life wasn’t funny, but she had the money,

I felt I was living in jail.

I walked with her right to the edge of the cliff

But always stopped seven steps short,

I said, ‘When you venture away from the house,

Remember the cliff is due North.’

I tried to impress it was safer to stay

Within ninety steps from the edge,

What I hadn’t told, as my blood had run cold

It was Eighty Eight steps to the ledge.

They’d say it was murder, I’d say it was fate

If she finally fell from the cliff,

I would say, ‘what the odds, it was up to the gods,’

And ‘life, it was full of ‘what if?’

My plans came to nothing, she drowned in the bath

But I still felt as guilty as sin,

I knew I’d had murder there deep in my heart

And that evil is doing me in!

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[zunie frost]

wow great job !!!
We came up to move in to ‘Ocean View’,
The house overlooking the sea,
I thought that the air would be good for us,
And the view would be okay for me.
I paced out the steps to the edge of the cliff
And reported to Cindy as such,
As long as she kept to her boundary
She wouldn’t fall over - (Not much!)
i love this stanza !!

[TPK Stories]

I felt he resented waiting on her, doing housework while she took her lessons....

[TPK Stories]

Kreepily beautiful story!

[D Connolly]

I love how you show a little bit of devilry in your work! Hey, we all have a little ugliness in us, you just make it look beautiful

[Coyote Poetry]

I enjoyed this story my friend.
"But I still felt as guilty as sin,
I knew I’d had murder there deep in my heart
And that evil is doing me in!"
I liked the use of the steps and the above lines. Accepting responsibility for action done. Thank you for sharing the amazing tale.
Coyote

[Valentine]

Yipes, this is so gruesome. My mother was blind a few years before she passed away. My dad and us kids watched out for her. Drown in the bathtub...yipes...did he hold her head under? Valentine

[mattavelli]

Hello, David! :)
That's a nice bouncy rhyme. He had a selfish streak and enough sentimentality to be haunted by it, a complicated guy.