A bit of an epic read this week. Brush up on your Mackem and read aloud. It is a different, colder view than Dickens intended.
Spirited
The room was a massive space,
sparsely decorated with an ornamental tree,
next to it a huge armchair,
in it the queerest shadow I’ll ever see,
with indeterminate and changing shape.
Ye’re the oddest shape I’ve ivver seen,
what are yer, where’ve yer been?
The accumulation of over seventy Christmases,
(heard as if in a dream),
all of them belong to you.
And what are yer after bonny lad,
a worse misnomer was nivver used.
To take you back to when you were bad,
and show the errors of your ways.
It’s aa’reet am not that bothered,
ahd rather gan back ter sleep.
Not your choice young man,
then he showed pictures of my Christmas sins,
not all seventy three,
just those poor examples of me being me.
You want to go back to restful sleep,
nightmares from that tale, awake will keep.
And the prophesy of the shapeless shade,
was quite correct for I tossed and turned,
as in bed I laid,
until further disturbed by a crying babe.
The room with the tree had an uncertain light,
that as time went on seemed more steady
and bright,
the babe now a strident, belligerent toddler,
fixed on me a youthful glare.
How today goes is up to you,
but may be influenced by this view,
It’s a’reet am not that bothered,
ahd rather gan back ter sleep.
Not an option – from the young man
with a fixed glare on my face.
How’s tha gettin ahd so quick?
Yer were nowt bura bairn ten minutes ago.
‘Watch folk enjoying the day,
think on the sagacity of changing your way,
my time is short and the next may not be as
kind.’
The next?
Will tha not give ower and lerus get some sleep man?
Careful, returned the old man,
with the sunken eyes,
panting for breath.
The room darkened,
the tree looked black,
the chair was empty,
I was shiverin’ with the cauld.
We’s there? I muttered,
ower scared to taak ower loud,
knain’ a wes bein’ watched or summat,
peerin’ into the void like cloud,
that’s worra thowt it wes.
Then the pictures started,
as gaps in the voluminous cloud parted,
then resealed like wounds
that were magically healed.
The scenes that appeared chilled the blood,
never intended to do the watcher good,
rather to slice into a stubborn mindset,
from a being invisible as yet.
Cold, dank, miserable scenarios,
avarice, meanness, loneliness,
and finally dark lonely demise,
flashed before the eyes.
Enuff! Stop it!
I get the message.
Then everything was still.
Aal hat te stop eatin’ cheese for me supper.
Still, I should invite the neighbours fora cuppa.