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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=365896" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Book of Van den Braak</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">I stared at the book on the table<br>Where it lay on the weathered oak, <br>The cover so black and tarnished, <br>Tanned in leather through coils of smoke, <br>Its ancient layers had long been carved<br>As petals of some grim flower, <br>Where an evil mildew spread its mould<br>From the walls of that ancient tower.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The book was set like an altar piece<br>In that ancient, flagstoned hall, <br>Catching the feeble rays of light<br>Through cracks in the old stone wall, <br>I hastened to look away, but yet<br>It gripped me in its glare, <br>Like some old German Grimoire...<br>Though no title page was there! </div><div style="margin:10px 0">I reached for the cover and opened it, <br>The leather creaked with age, <br>As it formed with its rotting petals <br>Into a rose around the page, <br>The smell of the mildew wafted up<br>And the chill was damp and stark, <br>There was nothing but evil in that tower, <br>In the book of Van den Braak.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I leant right over the book and saw<br>A woodcut of a lane, <br>The trees were grim in their winter coats<br>As the snow gave way to rain, <br>The mud was thick on the barren leaves<br>That were mulched from the Autumn's fall, <br>And I felt it squelch right under my feet<br>As the wind howled round the hall! </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The tower was gone, I stood outside<br>In the rain and the brooding dark, <br>Walking along a windswept lane<br>In the book of Van den Braak, <br>I saw the light of a cottage there, <br>Set back in among the trees, <br>And a woman wailed on the painted step, <br>My own, my dear Louise! </div><div style="margin:10px 0">I ran towards her, through a stream<br>That babbled beside the lane, <br>Louise was crying and wailing there, <br>She muttered: 'I'm not to blame! '<br>I must have seemed like a phantom there, <br>I waved, but she couldn't see, <br>She said, 'you shouldn't have killed him, <br>I just asked you to set me free! '</div><div style="margin:10px 0">A man ran out from the cottage door, <br>His coat was covered in blood, <br>He ran his hands through his tangled hair<br>And fell, to kneel in the mud.<br>He took her into his arms and cried, <br>She clung, and called him Mark, <br>And then when he turned, I saw his face, <br>I knew him - Van den Braak! </div><div style="margin:10px 0">I must have been quite invisible<br>In the pages of that book, <br>Or they were a couple of phantoms<br>Making love as I stood and shook, <br>I walked around to the cottage door<br>And peered in out of the rain, <br>I lay stone dead on the hearthstone there, <br>A bullet lodged in my brain.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">In shock I turned, I saw the tower, <br>I ran with all my might, <br>Back to the Norman Keep and Moat, <br>Back through the surly night, <br>The eyes of demons had followed me<br>From high in the trees of the park, <br>But I was ready for come-what-may<br>At the hands of Van den Braak! </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then suddenly, I was in the tower, <br>Leaning over the book, <br>When Van den Braak called out that he<br>Was ready to take a look, <br>I'd brought the book with the tenants' rents<br>Of those that lived in the park, <br>But I stabbed him high in the rib cage there, <br>And cut his throat in the dark! </div><div style="margin:10px 0">I went to his German Grimoire<br>Fell once more through the open page, <br>Went looking for my Louise, by now<br>In the white hot throes of rage, <br>She sat and wailed on the painted step<br>And muttered there in the dark...<br>'I didn't ask you to kill the man, <br>Just free me from Van den Braak! '</div><div style="margin:10px 0">1 April 2010</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=365896" data-title="The Book of Van den Braak de David Lewis Paget" data-description="I stared at the book on the table
Where it lay on the weathered oak, 
The cover so black and tarnished, 
Tanned in leather through coils of smoke, 
Its ancient layers had long been carved
As petals of some grim flower, 
Where an evil mildew spread..."></div>
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