More of ‘The Juniper Tree’

Part 2

Not knowing how to shirk the blame,

The wicked stepmother was afraid;

She searched for a handkerchief

To secure her stepson’s head

And then she sat him on a stool

As if he were not dead

Under the juniper tree

With an apple in his hand.

Running in from the garden

To find her mother by the fire

Stirring a pot, Margery enquired:

‘What’s wrong with my brother?

I asked him for the apple, mother,

That he’s holding in his hand.

But he did not say a word

And I do not understand.

He looks so pale and I am afraid.’

Her mother replied,

‘Fiddlesticks! Ask him again

And, if he gives no answer,

He’ll respond to pain.’

When Margery’s brother

Didn’t reply, she boxed his ear

And his head fell off –

She ran away in fear.

When her father came home to dinner

And asked for his little boy,

Margery wept bitterly and could not reply.

But the evil stepmother easily told a lie,

That he was visiting his uncle

Without saying good-bye.

Margery was sorry

For what she thought she’d done;

She took her best handkerchief,

Wrapped up her brothers’ bones

And buried them under the juniper tree,

Where a bird sat, singing merrily.

 

© Kim M. Russell, 2016

Images found on Pinterest