"O Oysters, come and walk with us!"
The Walrus did beseech.
"A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk,
Along the briny beach
-Lewis Carroll
Harveywood
The pixie and the paladin both made quite a pair;
with sword and shield and long curly hair.
On white horseback they rode swiftly to town
Kicking dust as they went but never touching the ground.
Waiving and singing to the townsfolk with glee
‘til they arrived at the church and the priestess and her tea.
The church bell sat quiet and still while they sang
until the knight with sword sounded a “CLANG!”
They rang it and waited until someone cried,
"Paladin and pixie! Here you'll reside!"
"Welcome to Harveywood!” out called the Priestess.
Her kindness was something that left them both speechless.
“Where is home?” asked the Pixie, “we both need some rest.”
The priestess replied, “Where you are now; and surely you jest!
This is the place that you’ve wanted to be
going to sleep is a crime here, you see.”
“If you must go to bed, then give me no hassle;
Nay, go lie down in your elegant castle.”
“We have no castle, as you can plainly see,
new to this land, is this pixie and me.”
“We have not a castle, or a house, or a shack.
We had only food and elixir to pack.”
“Well now you are here and it’s a castle you'll need;
just open your heart and I’ll plant the seed.”
The castle sprang forth with a sudden blast of light;
it stood on a path that was just to the right.
“Where is our castle, where I’m to be crowned?”
She said, “If you can tell time, then it can be found.
Your castle’s not where, but rather it’s when;
If you want somewhere to live, then inquire within.
The Castle of Fate
“Follow close,” said the knight to the pixie, “The treasure map’s true!”
“Do not ride too fast,” said the pixie to the knight, “or I cannot follow you.”
“If you want not to follow, you shouldn’t embark
because where we are going is out in the dark.”
The pixie got scared and flew closer still
The pixie got hurt after taking a spill.
Out in the darkness, where few would conspire,
tall in the night, stood a castle and spire!
They approached the castle which was covered in flowers
It sat in the dark, surrounded by towers.
The guard came and asked, “Do you mean us harm?”
“No,” said the knight, “our only weapon is charm!”
“Then you may enter, but ‘fore I lower the gate,
pause and ponder on the castle of fate!”
“That sounds like a warning we just can’t abide;
fate’s something from which we never shall hide.”
The guard demanded the fates be given such center:
“give what you want and then you may enter.”
The paladin answered: a confused savant,
“I want what you have, but don’t have what you want!”
The guard demanded the fates be given their due.
The knight emptied his pockets till his face had turned blue.
“I gave what I had; how much more can I give?”
“Give up what you want ‘less all you want is to live.”
And it trickled through his head
like water through a sieve.
They entered the castle on a cloud of pure white
so they peeked for a place they could sleep for the night.
“The palace is full. We must sleep in the basement.”
They smoked, and drank, and away the night went
But out in the darkness, just in his view,
the knight saw a light and that’s when he knew!
“Someone’s approaching, that’s all I can see.
I can see him, but he can’t see me!”
The Song of the Mermaid
The Paladin and the Pixie danced hand in hand.
They kissed and swore they’d never leave the sand.
Just then, a school of fish passed disturbingly near
and the Paladin thought, “Fish in the desert seem especially queer.”
The Pixie spoke up, “Let’s go for a swim.”
and jumped right in, as if the knight was dim.
The Paladin was close behind; “water sounds good to me!”
But there’s a problem with a knight in the water, you see…
When he jumped in, his armor dragged him down.
The water, which once was blue, got thick and turned brown.
He kicked and swam and tried to breathe water.
But the more he struggled the more he would falter.
When he reached the bottom he tried to march, as soldiers often do,
and realized that water is something you just can’t march through.
A mermaid stopped and stared and began to sing
filling the knights ears with a soft hypnotic ring.
The mermaid and the paladin paraded across the land.
They stopped and ate atop the salty sand.
Her fish peeked in to find they weren’t alone
and begged the mermaid that she might take them all home.
“I cannot leave a brave knight so dire;
on the ocean floor in the muck and the mire.”
So they met on the beach where no one would be
And said their goodbyes where no one would see.
The paladin stood with no sense of grace
And the mermaid kissed him just once on the face.
“I’ll think of you always,” said the mermaid to the knight
“I’ll think of you most when you’re farthest from sight.”
The cold water took him, the knight, just then
and transported him back to a time before sin.
The song of the siren left a mark on his mind.
His night with the mermaid had left the knight blind.
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