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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=365774" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Lightning Jack</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">The air was still, the eve was chill<br>And the Elders forecast rain, <br>They looked to the distant rolling hills<br>At the ominous cloud that came, <br>The doors and shutters of cottage folk<br>Were slammed and barred in the dark, <br>With the first of the lightning forking down<br>On its way to the village of Stark.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">A figure stood at the crossroads there, <br>And stared at the cloud in dread, <br>His boots were muddied, his topcoat wet<br>And his hat just drooped on his head, <br>With thunder rumbling like a growl<br>At the back of the Devil's throat, <br>The figure dropped to his knees and howled, <br>In a long and a high pitched note.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The crossroad gibbet was made of oak, <br>Had carried a hundred moans, <br>Had hung its felons from each of its arms<br>'Til the flesh had peeled from their bones, <br>It stood like a force of nature, poised<br>To point three ways in the dark, <br>To the towns of Taye, of Ath and Brahe<br>And fourth, to the village of Stark.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The thunder had rolled relentlessly, <br>The rain, it was pelting down, <br>A villager saw the figure there<br>As he halted a while, and frowned, <br>The lightning forked from the darkening cloud<br>And it struck the figure in black, <br>As the oak exploded in one brief flash<br>By the figure of Lightning Jack.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The figure staggered and howled once more<br>Then he shook his fist at the sky, <br>He'd been lit by the bright blue thunderbolt<br>That had crisped his hat, bone dry, <br>But now he was mad as he raised his voice<br>And he screamed by the wreck of the tree: <br>'You can burst the gibbet and scorch the earth<br>But by God, you can't get me! '</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He made his way to the village of Stark<br>Took a room at the village Inn, <br>But news had spread of his near escape<br>From the lightning bolt of sin, <br>The villagers took to crossing themselves<br>When he passed, each turned his back, <br>They'd have no truck with the devil's seed, <br>That they knew as Lightning Jack.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">For Jack had been struck a dozen times<br>By a bolt from the darkening sky, <br>It was almost as if he was cursed by God<br>And the villagers wondered why? <br>Wherever he roamed in the lanes and fields<br>When a storm was coming on, <br>He'd run and hide, but the storm's black tide<br>Would follow, wherever he'd gone.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They said that he'd killed a man one day<br>For a woman of gypsy blood, <br>But she had rushed to her lover's side<br>As he died there, in the mud.<br>Then she cursed him once in the Romany way, <br>And she cursed his soul as well, <br>That he'd live forever to curse the day<br>That he'd broken her lover's spell.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They'd dragged him before the magistrates, <br>His hands and his feet in chains, <br>They'd sent him down on a murder charge<br>To be hanged by the autumn rains, <br>The drop, it had failed to open up, <br>The rope had snapped with his fall, <br>The beam gave way on the third attempt<br>And he lay half-stunned on the floor.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The third attempt brought a swift reprieve<br>From a Judge, in the fear of God, <br>Who thought it an omen he be spared <br>For the Lord's own lightning rod, <br>So he sent him out of the country, <br>Told the wretch he'd better not hope, <br>To return again, or he'd feel the pain<br>Once more, of the hangman's rope.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And so he sailed to the continent<br>And his feet were set to roam, <br>He slept in the barns of farmers' farms<br>With never a place called home, <br>While every storm from a threatening sky<br>Had caused him to curse and shout, <br>The rolling verse of the Romany's curse<br>Was determined to seek him out.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The lightning struck on the baldest hill, <br>It struck in the deepest wood, <br>It took one eye, and blistered his tongue, <br>Withered one arm where he stood, <br>At times he bordered on madness, <br>Scanned the skies for a lightning bolt, <br>And shook in fear as his fate drew near<br>That he'd turn to a pillar of salt.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The Mayor of Stark in his ermine robes<br>Had drawn on his long gold chain, <br>Had gathered his councillors round him<br>Raised his voice, and began to declaim: <br>'As long as I'm the Mayor of Stark<br>In charge of the town's decrees, <br>This Lightning Jack is a menace, <br>Wrecks our barns and blasts our trees.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They carried him bodily into the square<br>And they bound him up in chain, <br>With lightning flashing around their heads, <br>He roared: 'Now feel my pain! <br>God's wrath will stay with you in Stark<br>Unless you let me go! '<br>The Mayor looked round the village square<br>Then quietly answered - 'No! '</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'A curse may turn to a blessing, <br>It depends on a person's creed, <br>And you may seek your salvation <br>By fulfilling a village's needs.'<br>They hoisted him up to the ancient church, <br>They tied him onto the steeple, <br>'Now you may serve as our lightning rod, <br>Perched high above the people! '</div><div style="margin:10px 0">At Stark they witness many a storm<br>Where the lightning forks on down, <br>But not one villager has been struck<br>In field or farm or town, <br>The lightning arcs down to the Church<br>To sear the hangman's dross, <br>For something withered and crisp lies there<br>Beneath the Holy Cross! </div><div style="margin:10px 0">And after the worst of the storm is spent<br>The wind howls through the eaves, <br>The lightning tapering off, it makes<br>Its way back through the trees, <br>Then you may listen and hear a cry<br>That sounds more like a plea -<br>'You can blast and light up the weathercock<br>But by God, you can't get me! '</div><div style="margin:10px 0">15 June 2009</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=David+Lewis+Paget">David Lewis Paget</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=365774" data-title="Lightning Jack de David Lewis Paget" data-description="The air was still, the eve was chill
And the Elders forecast rain, 
They looked to the distant rolling hills
At the ominous cloud that came, 
The doors and shutters of cottage folk
Were slammed and barred in the dark, 
With the first of the lightn..."></div>
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