Has anyone seen Mary Blake?
They’ve tied her mother on the stake
At her trial she had nothing to say
They are to burn her anyway

Children told tall of tales of the crone
Who summoned demons to her woodland home
Parents that swore their children don’t lie
Called her a witch and demanded she die

Still no sign of Mary Blake
They are lighting the fire beneath the stake
Has she heard and will she come?
To morn her mother as she burns?

The flames they claimed the woman’s life
Loving mother, widowed wife
No one realized what they had done
Their children had lied and all for fun

The secret of the children’s guilt
Remained untold in the lies they built
The fire burned on through the night
Falling to ashes in the morning light

Has anyone told poor Mary Blake?
They’ve burnt her mother at the stake
No one in and no one home
They searched the woods around her home

Believing taken by forest beast
Claiming Mary for a feast
They laid rest their search and headed home
To the village from where they had come

They had not found Mary Blake
No further attempt would they make
And soon the girl was forgotten
Memory of their deed buried and rotting

A year had passed to the day
A bright spring morning, the month of May
To the village came a girl
Pale of skin and hair of curls

No one noticed as she played
With the children and led them away
Into the forest they did run
Skipping, dancing and having fun

Panic spread throughout the town
Children gone, nowhere to be found
They searched all night for their kin
The smell of smoke on the wind

When finally upon a woodland home
Did the villagers finally roam
To find it scorched, a glowing cinder
A note they found pinned to smoldering timber

With horror filled eyes the note they read
“You’ll find inside your children dead”
“A price they paid for their mistake”
“And telling lies” signed Mary Blake.

The End

By James Gibson

"Ballads from the Broken Toy Box" 2011

copyright J. Gibson 05/10/11