A light step here,
A quick foot there,
And he quickly came to bear.

A bright dressed fellow,
Wearing a brighter grin,
Eyes shiny blue; hair all brilliant green.

His purple suit did flash the eye,
His yellow pants did entice;
His bright red cape did dazzle, in all of our clumsy sights.

“Ho!” Called I,
“Queer you seem;
Your gait’s stealthy but aren’t unseen.

Wherefore you come from,
Where’ve you been?
Come share with me how you have your sheen.”

Unfurling his laugh;
Of happy perfidy,
He sat to drink and began his story.

“It was a steely night,
When I was born.
The air alive with with the roar of horns.

A babbling babe,
What did I know,
Of fate and its unfair dice throw.

You see this body;
Tis not of flesh.
A heart alive and metal’s dress.

A secret well kept,
By mother from all;
Till my teenage love broke through her deceptive wall.

And cast out from my village,
At fifteen.
I was thrust into the world and its consummate greed.

Walking along;
I came to a town.
Met a little girl fighting death on the ground.

Overcome by pity,
I wished her well;
And she sat up straight, back from her hell.

I felt a twinge,
right in my heart.
And understood as I saw a small piece devoured.

As she looked deep in me,
with her urchiny eyes;
She said she would never leave my side.

True to her word,
She taught me to live.
In the streets she protected me from heart theieves.

Till one day she left,
to get us both food;
And all I saw was her on the road strewn.

Left alone, out of pity, I healed;
And out of selfish desire too,
till the lords’ interest, in my heart’s powers grew.

Summons he sent for me,
But twere only for my heart.
His greedy eyes tore into mine each skeletal part.

Vary of all,
and their slithering lies;
I ran to the woods, without any goodbyes.

Wanted by all,
Needed by none.
I sunk deeper and deeper within.

Till my mother called,
It was true!
For this unignorable call, my horse too flew.

Grinning as I entered my house,
a frown did conquer me.
My mother lay deathly ill ; twas her final call to me.

True sorrow I felt then;
Helpless I was never more.
My heart overflowed and blood spilled from my chest’s door.

Blind to the pain,
I wept and I wept.
And fell asleep below mother’s headrest.

When I awoke,
the bed lay bare.
And a gaping rage filled my heart’s lair.

I staggered out shaky,
And saw a sign outfront.
Mother’s face beside: This house belongs to the duchess of Vermont.

In disbelief I asked sense of a passersby,
Disgustedly, he told me of the crowning day.
A live heart was given for the title and acres at stake.

As it dawned on me what I was worth;
I turned around; feet moving forward
Wondering why I deserved this uncradled horror.

Since then I move slowly along,
with a mother who cared not of me,
But her back. And a title important which set me free.

For no longer am I,
at any’s beck and call.
And no one does care whether I rise or fall.

Come raise your glass to this final pail.
To healthy hearts and numbing ales.
I hope you shall remember me,
The mechanic was I, the storyteller I shall be.”

Saying thus, he walked away.
His red cape billowing in the windless day.