‘I hear that Muddy Waters is frequenting these fairs,
With a pack of lies behind her and ribbons in her hair.’
A stranger thus approached me on top of Emerald Hill,
I went down with a fever and woke up with a chill.
Then stumbled to my bare feet, a-wondering what to say,
And turned towards a creature so finely cast in clay,
‘Behold my grave misfortune at this renegade hotel,
Now take me to these fairgrounds, I will reward you well.’
‘I fear I’ll be rewarded in the currency of shame,
And they call it reputation, by the way, what you call fame.’
I took her by her collar, said,‘Are you not aware?
I’ve been deprived of anger to which I was the rightful heir.’
‘It’s not for lack of pity I refuse your sorry state,
Nor on grounds of virtue, Sir, that I hesitate.’
I let go of her collar and ventured down the stairs.
She gathered her composure and said ‘I’ll take you to these fairs.’
‘It falls upon the gentle, and on the innocent, too.
I hear the devil needs a showcase, it might as well be you.’
With these kind words of comfort she agreed to take me on,
Though blindfolded and naked, of no harm to anyone.
To ridicule and laughter I exposed this heart of mine,
With a fever high and rising and my spirits in decline.
For just like Job before me I cursed the day I was born,
Like the sparrows in the bushes I felt the sting of thorns
Awhile my persecutor flourished like a rose
As I buried my companion in the very ground she chose.
Through tears and perspiration my weary eyes assumed
To undertake the verses that would decorate her tomb.
I knew my time was coming, if no one intervened,
When someone turned me over and said,‘I’m Jeremiah Spleen.’
‘As much as I’m a stranger, I’m the stranger in your dream.’
I recognized that moment Muddy Waters’ seam.
Her petty accusations swirled above the noise
As Jeremiah warned me with low and fearsome voice,
‘Some are broken vessels, impossible to fill.
I believed that truth was brilliant,well, sometimes it’s just shrill.’
I spied her ‘cross the fairgrounds, her hair was shining red,
As I stepped up to her charges, she stayed two or three ahead.
Then, suddenly, she silenced like someone did appear,
And when she gave a curtsey, I knew the Prince of Lies was near.
Cried Jeremiah plainly with piercing eyes so blue,
‘Her time of apprehension is well nigh overdue!’
His arms swung low with fury, his voice resembled smoke,
She turned around to waste him just when my fever broke.
I threw a burning slingshot from the bottom of my heart
And got myself together as Muddy Waters fell apart.
She rubbed her face with ashes, she tore her faded jeans,
She wrote that name in charcoal, ‘Jeremiah Spleen’.