Golden Sedge Song

This is a ballad-like thing.

It was many years ago

     When I heard this tragic tale

Many years it was indeed

     But my memory won't fail

It's the story of a girl

     A girl too sweet for her fate

Her sick mother died too soon

     And her father found a mate

One day the man had to go

     Far away, for he had chores

T'was a long and sad goodbye

     Then he sailed to other shores

For more than a year it was

     Just the women in the house

The wife was freakishly mean

     The girl got thin like a mouse

While the woman broke some toys

     That the girl so carefully kept

The girl drooled over a fig

     Which she ate when the shrew slept

But the poor girl didn't know

     Fruits were counted one by one

When her stepmother found out

     Her rage burned just like the sun

She turned out killing the girl

     Out of greediness and wrath

And she buried the girl's corpse

     Behind the house, near a path

The girl used to have long hair

     Long hair in tresses of gold

The hair grew into a sedge

     Always golden, never old

When the girl's father came home

     He went looking for his kid

But the woman said she fled

     And her big crime she thus hid

The man made peace with his loss

     And he started a horse farm

With the gains from his journey

     He bought a mare and a barn

Let's make hay from all this sedge

     So my mare will become strong

The man said grabbing a scythe

     But he heard a dreadful song

Oh, gardener, please hurt me not

     This sedge by the path is me

Oh, that woman had me killed

     For a fruit of the fig tree

The poor man went home in tears

     He did not hear out the end

While that woman's still alive

     I'll stay here, my soul won't mend

The woman said he was mad

     Still thinking about the girl

She convinced him to forget

     And to buy her a new pearl

Years passed and they had a son

     He was such a clever boy

The girl's ghost now had a chance

     To find her eternal joy

Everyday she would sing songs

     When the boy walked by her side

He was so touched by her voice

     He asked the sedge how she died

The poor boy could not believe

     What he heard about his mom

He swore to the girl he'd kill

     The woman he had come from

On the night of Halloween

     The boy's father wasn't there

And the beldam was asleep

     It was time to make things fair

The boy looked for a sharp knife

     That was fit to commit crimes

And he cut her mother's throat

     As he heard the midnight chimes

Right then his father came back

     To find his wife dead in bed

And his son was watching lights

     From the golden sedge, now red

The man killed himself so sad

     And the boy jumped off a cliff

This is how this story ends

     Four bodies all dead and stiff

Author's Note

This is one of my saddest productions, I guess. Portraying the stepmother as evil is a bit cliché, but you'll see it's not like children tales.

Reviews

[WingsToFly]

a nicely told story