The Lady in the Chimney

The lady in the chimney bakes in the summer sun
How she got there, she knows not, but thought it would be fun
To have a night of dancing, to have and eat her cake
But going home with the smiling man would be her last mistake

His smiling eyes shone in the mirror ball light
His handsome mouth enough to make her heart take flight
And her heart went soft when he tried to dance on his crutches
A soft heart and a giddy head danced her straight into his clutches

The lady in the chimney recalls his face and grins
As she thinks of his graceful stumble and her less than supple pins
On the long cool walk to his place, as the moon shone without alarm
And the trees stood still and culpable, complicit in his charm

There’s a darkness and a redness at the end of this lovers path
Cute little drinks in cute little glasses and… and something in the bath
Dark splashed across the tiles and matter on the floor
And a memory of her sister insisting those shoes would make her sore

But they sat so fine and lonely in the window of the shop
On the corner of the high street between the florist and the bus stop
That they called and begged her to buy them, to show them off and dance
To walk in summer moonlight, beside a nice young man, fat chance

The only men who tempted her were always married or dirty vicious scum
Who had their way or beat her, stole her cash or wanted her up the bum
So once a month she spent a week with a black eye and a bleeding heart
As she craved a man who would love her, not tear her world apart

The lady in the chimney now has as enemies just a few
All of them dirty pigeons who sit and coo and poo
Upon the place that she calls home, but this wise lady knows
That she has feathered friends as well, her ever present crows

Who chase pigeons away and sit to caw and wait
To take her restless soul away, away to hibernate
From this dark life which leaves her neither here nor there
But sat in her high chimney, hot in the summer air

The lady in the chimney remembers more of that last night
As the crows can feel a change in her and suddenly take flight
Into the grey of impending rain, the sunshine disappears
And in her dreams she can recall the bitterness of tears

She wept as the man with the crutches proved charmless
As he forced himself upon her, raging, and he’d seemed so harmless
Earlier in the evening as he danced and laughed and touched
Something in her heart and soul that made more than just her face hot blush

The rain began to fall likes tears, streaming down the chimney’s face
The lady inside only now can this is her resting place
So this tragedy comes to an end, but inside the Lady’s head
The saddest thing of this dark tale, is that she doesn’t know she’s dead