The Old Crone In the Woods, Part I
I.
It was in 1554
that young Liesel watched her little nice die,
a fever had swept through Bavaria,
and from her tiny frame all life did fly.
She wasn’t the first, many died that year,
but at the funeral for that little girl
Liesel was to see something so shocking
that it would forever alter her world.
She saw there, at the edge of the churchyard,
where the woods crowded up against the sward,
a shrunken, old woman, wearing a cape,
something about her filled Liesel with horror.
She could not get a good look at her face,
thanks to a big hood that cast shadows deep,
but she learned on a cane, sere and ancient,
and up her spine Liesel felt worry creep.
Nobody else appeared to notice her,
the service went on, the priest duly prayed,
it appeared to Liesel that no other
fought with the sudden urge to run away.
And when the time came for all to disperse
the fell woman was still standing right there,
they left to the sounds of dirt hitting wood,
Liesel was relieved, but still felt despair.
Later that night, looking out her window,
from up above her father’s blacksmith shop,
she saw a figure out in the churchyard,
’twas the old woman, her heart nearly stopped!
Why did she stand over her niece’s grave,
it was at this moment she realized
that the dead babe’s soul was greatly at risk,
she’d been so young that she’d not been baptized!
She spent the night hiding under the sheets,
so terrified that her knees were shaking,
ran down the next morning to tell her mom
of the old woman, the grave, everything.
Her mother listened with a solemn face,
and stroked Liesel’s hand to help her calm down,
then said, “That woman has been seen before,
when children pass, she often comes around.
“You know when a child dies unbaptized
there souls are condemned to go to Limbo,
some have whispered that she brings them down there,
and it’s where you brother’s child must go.
“It is best that you ask no more questions,
forgetting what you’ve seen would do you well,
turn your thoughts to God, and remember not
to meddle with servants sent out from Hell.”
Liesel walked away even more confused,
people knew of this and they did not act?
a hellspawned creature was stealing young souls,
and the people just ignored or stepped back?
How cold the priests allow such things to be?
How could such an abomination stand?
And how could God himself send the innocent
to spent eternity amongst the damned?
CONTINUES IN PART II.
Copyright © David Welch | Year Posted 2020
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