Essie Sue & Ghostie, Too
Jul 31 '02 (Updated Aug 03 '02)
The Bottom Line To Err is Human, To Forgive is Divine. The question: Is Essie Sue divinely human? And is the Ghost humanly divine?
Hmmm - Let's find out!
ESSIE SUE & GHOSTIE, TOO
I was decked out in red velvet and did not look too bad
when my Harry stood me up that fateful night.
But since I really relished the relationship we had,
I said I understood, without a fight.
Then I caught him down on Main Street
with a blonde hooked to his arm,
so I blew my stack and jumped back in my car
and screeched it down some dirt roads,
reached an old, deserted farm,
and crashed into the fence, its gate ajar.
I went flying, landed crying, with a goose egg on my head.
I hated dear, old Harry then and there.
I swore I’d not forgive him and kept wishing I were dead,
but to do the trick myself, I did not dare.
My car was almost totaled, so I had no other choice,
but to stay close to that farmhouse all night long.
It was boarded up and spooky, and I thought I heard a voice,
So I was shaking and a-hoping I was wrong.
When the moon slipped past the poplars,
those sweet stars dipped down so low
that I swear I could have picked a handful down.
Then the leaves began to whisper as the wind began to blow,
so I crawled up on that rock near Moorestown.
I was frightened as I lay there, and I couldn’t sleep a wink;
I kept hearing eerie scraping, rattling sounds.
I tried to say a prayer, but found I couldn’t even think,
for my imagination knew no bounds.
Now, a rock’s no feather pillow, Pal.
I persevered a bit,
then patted it to find a smoother place,
but I patted something clammy, and whammy!
I was hit with the vision of a pallid, paunchy, face,
that was staring, that was glaring,
from beneath a long, white cloak;
My feet became two glue-globs on the ground.
I stood frozen, fried and frittered, then the apparition spoke
and I shuddered and collapsed from that weird sound.
When I had recovered and discovered he was gone,
I tried to run away, but fell down, lame;
So in that murky moment when midnight sneers at dawn,
I heard that hooded horror hoot my name.
He was hiding by the siding of what used-to-be a barn,
and was bleating out a bleary sort of yelp.
He sounded so pathetic, I just didn't give a darn,
and crawled toward him to see if I could help.
But what he wanted mostly was to weep and whine and wail,
while he faded out and stayed about half-blurred.
Then he settled in some, started telling his life’s tale,
and I’ll share with you the story that I heard:
In life he’d been a soldier in that War against the Crown;
British Red Coats, Paul Revere, and all of that.
He got wounded up near Trenton and sent back to Moorestown,
where he limped through his front door -- and spied a hat!
That hat was on the table, and he knew it weren't his;
He felt just like a log feels when it's split,
for he reckoned she'd forgotten him,
and though it weren’t like Liz,
He figured she'd been flirtin' 'round a bit.
He peeked out through the curtains and, by hemlock,
saw her there,
Just a’wigglin' and a'gigglin' up a storm,
so he grabs his trusty musket, thrusts his chin up in the air
and bursts out toward the barn in trigger-form.
Liz was only feedin’ chickens, apron flappin' in the breeze,
her lacy cap so perky on her head.
When first she seen him comin',
he was skulkin' through the trees,
So she fired at him and thought a Red was dead.
But 'twas Ghostie who was dyin', his head lyin' in her lap.
How she begged him to forgive what she’d just done!
But he started gettin' stubborn, his male ego in a trap,
for he had larned her how to shoot that gun.
He prattled, as he rattled, 'bout that hat he'd seen before,
fair saddlin' her with all his foolish doubt;
She swore it were a gift for him – she'd bought
at Swenson’s store
to surprise him when the fires of war burned out.
Do you think that he believed her? No, he grieved her
worse 'n worse,
'Tweren't bad enough what she was goin’ through,
for with his final gasp that varmint blurted out this curse:
"MAY WE NEVER REST IN PEACE
IF THAT BE TRUE!"
Well, it was true, and he's been blue two centuries, or so,
just haunting folks who visit his tombstone,
which served him right, he’d sealed his plight.
I said I had to go, but he belted out another blasted moan.
It sounded like his soul had broke and shattered inside hell,
And it stoked the fear of hell inside of me.
So I stayed a bit, delayed a bit, let him go on a spell
about the agony of his eternity.
He shook his head and led me to the pasture past the wall
and pointed toward the mist out in the field.
That's when I saw the shape of her;
That's when I heard her call;
That's when I knew their destinies were sealed.
I knew they could not touch ---- they were trapped
within his curse,
And a pain shot through my soul sharp as a lance.
I turned away, then heard him say,
"Don't cry. It could be worse.
Dear Essie Sue, with you we have a chance."
Well, I really should have known it;
There was bound to be a hitch;
Me, with broken-heart spelled on my face.
For every time that I grow soft, I end up in a ditch,
and it's up to me to smooth the dirt in place.
But I walked with him and talked with him
and listened to his plan,
While the Sun reached toward the Clouds to hitch a ride.
What I did then, I did for him, that poor Colonial man,
whose grief had Pierced my Precious-Purple Pride.
He'd taught me quite a lesson about bitterness and pain,
And all the awful things that hate can do.
He said that when we're angry, it's like plowin' in the rain
Just to sink down in a swamp before we're through.
He told me that forgiveness is a gift from up above,
And that this gift is free for us to take,
And when we’ve been forgiven, then we are free to love,
and can forgive each other for His sake.
For, he said, forgiveness is like floatin' on a breeze,
which carries us above the woes of life.
An act of love helps others, and often even frees
the Chains which they have fashioned by their strife.
So, I hobbled home to Harry and said I'd pardoned him,
and he laughed about the awful scene I’d made,
for the blonde was his lost sister,
which made my blue eyes brim
for I’d acted like a kid in second grade.
Then late that night by a radiant light,
which the stars had softly spread,
he drove me to that sad, old graveyard farm,
where I waved goodbye to Ghostie,
his new hat upon his head
and his ever-loving Liz upon his arm.
Epilogue:
Lately I've been wond'ring just how my name he learned,
and I'll share with you the secret that I found:
There's a Great White Book in Heaven,
and when my page was turned,
an angel read that Essie Sue was bound
To get so mad she’d run away
from one who loved her well,
so he flew straight down and flung that gate real wide.
And the tale he’d spun, he’d spun for me;
he thought I could not tell
that Ghostie was my Angel,
by my side.
Carol V. Graham (c)1999
With apologies to Robert Service & Rudyard Kipling, whose ballads follow all the rules.
Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it.
Lorace
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