The Valley of Discontent

He gazed at me with his rheumy eyes,

‘You think that you’re getting old!

You’ll not go travel that lonely valley

Until your bones are cold.’

His voice was like the sound of a rasp

Bubbling up through his chest,

And his claw-like hands reached out for mine

As I backed away from his desk.

 

‘I see that you won’t come close to me

And I can’t blame you for that,

This body holds a corrupted soul

That’s caught, like a drowning rat.

I tasted sin ‘til I’d had my fill

When I once was young, like you,

I’m twice as old as you think I am

At a hundred and twenty two.’

 

I took a further step from his desk

And I let his words sink in,

I’d known that he was a billionaire

But not that he’d tasted sin.

‘They told me you had the answers, you

Could steer me to great success!’

‘I could, but given your chances, you

Should probably aim for less.’

 

‘I aimed as high as I thought I could

But life only gave me gruel,

I wanted to rise as high as the rest

But the lack of success was cruel,

They passed me by for promotion while

The idiots by me flew,

I watched them counting their bonuses

While the ones that I got were few.’

 

‘So envy lies at the heart of it,

You think it’s better with wealth,

You only can spend a part of it

What you really need is health,

Your cheeks are ruddy, your eyes are bright

You can walk in the winter rain,

While I sit crippled with untold wealth

In a body that’s racked with pain.’

 

‘But you’ve been able to buy the best

In a long and a fruitful life,

While I’ve been able to give much less

At home, to my loving wife.’

‘At least your woman has stayed by you,

She hasn’t been fired by greed,

She’s more content than the wives I knew

Who wanted more than they need.’

 

‘I don’t have even a single friend,’

He said, with a misty eye,

‘But plenty of greedy hangers-on

Who are waiting for me to die.

I wasn’t warned when I signed the form

In blood, that the heart grows cold,

That even the love of my children then

Could only be bought with gold.’

 

He shuffled the papers on his desk

And pushed one across to me,

‘Just sign on the bottom line in blood

And you’ll have everything you see.’

I looked at his ancient, withered form,

At the lines in his face of woe,

Thought of my wife and children, then:

‘I think I’d better just go!’

 

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[Tom]

Your health is your wealth !

A rousing moralistic tale with a liberal helping of black humour, truly an epic indeed!

[Linda Marie Van Tassell]

Wise decision indeed! Better to lose all the wealth in the world than lose an inch of your soul.

Well done.

[Strider Marcus Jones]

Nice to see good rejecting evil in this excellent poem. 100/100

[TL Boehm]

Thought of my wife and children, then:
‘I think I’d better just go!’

A wise decision! Wonderful poetry

[Keith]

Love that opening stanza! You always set the scene and the mood in the first few lines, but that opening created such a vivid image of the creepy old man. The rest just flowed from there.

[TPK Stories]

Another great story David ... a tale about money and greed ...

[Marie]

A wise decision...I do think money can buy happiness (or at least a reasonable facsimille), but it's still not worth your soul...

[Tate Morgan]

oh yeah this is classic paget. The deal with the devil and how many of us would have sold our soul for the same empty promises of wealth and happiness . Only to regret it later?