The Leprechaun
I often walk in distant woods
Whose silence is a balm,
In secret mountain meadows
Where the world is always calm.
A leprechaun one day did chance
to flit before my eyes!
I turned and gazed at where he'd been,
but couldn't spot my prize.
Then from a darkened thicket,
There escaped a golden glow,
And next a stream of liquid notes
Across the wood did flow.
He was so sure of solitude,
He sang his happy song
While pouring o'er a pot of gold
He wouldn't own for long!
Quietly, oh so quietly,
Did I steal up to his side,
He never knew until the end
That he had been espied.
I seized him firmly by the nape
And held on like a vise.
He squeaked and squirmed and tried to bite --
He wasn't very nice.
But I knew well that if I should
But turn my glance away,
He'd disappear in an elvish flash
And whisk his gold away.
So straight I stared into those eyes,
so green, yet flecked with gold,
And tightened still my iron-like grip:
he'd never break that hold!
And soon he tired, gave up the fight.
He nodded, as a sign
That he was beat. His shoulders slumped;
Then he began to whine….
He claimed there was a greater hoard
in the heart of a hollow tree.
He'd lead me there so willingly --
If I’d just set him free.
He said he would. He swore he would!
He promised through and through!!
And I believed him. Yes, I did.
But then, wouldn't you?
I loosed my grip -- and ever since
I have been sadly ruing
The day I spurned one pot of gold,
And Greed proved my undoing:
For sudden puffs of golden dust
Blinded both my eyes;
And when I opened them again,
Vanished was my prize!
The moon went down, I searched in vain
Until at last the dawn
Revealed the cold and bitter Truth:
My gnome and gold were gone!