The Ballad of Charlie and Chantelle

Charlie was a young man who dreamed of being free

When he came of age he ran away to live a life at sea

The sailor he became was handsome, dark, and tall

Soon he found women at every port of call

Chantelle was the daughter of a sailor’s widowed wife

The widow and her daughter had a poor and wretched life

Hard-working was the widow, for her daughter was her joy

Chantelle’s life would change for good if she married some nice boy

One chilly, stormy winter Charlie’s ship came in to trade

Where Chantelle lived with mother, and her mother’s plans were made

The weather kept the shipmates and their captain at the shore

It seemed to them forever, that they’d go to sea no more

Not long since they came sailing on the rough and rugged sea

Charlie and Chantelle met, and lovers came to be

Now, Chantelle’s desperate mother thought that Charlie was a catch

Chantelle sought only romance, but her mother saw a match

Charlie felt the pressure to marry sweet Chantelle

Though Charlie had a secret that he now could never tell

They made the vows by springtime when the seas began to calm

Chantelle soon felt misgivings when she looked upon her palm

When Charlie left that springtime on a calm and glassy sea

Chantelle went to mother with the news that she would be

The widow of a sailor with a new child of her own

Charlie whispered in his sleep and seeds of doubt were sown

Chantelle would not be widowed, for her marriage was not true

See, Charlie had another wife, and this thing Chantelle knew

Whene’er she slept beside him, she travelled through his dreams

So she knew the man she loved was not the man he seems

Now Charlie was upon the sea, he travelled far and long

Chantelle sought through dreaming other women he had wronged

Before he reached his homeland, long before he reached his wife

He never knew the lies he told would cost him love and life

When Charlie wasn’t sailing, see, he was a petty thief

A murderer and partner with a woman who thrived on grief

Paula was his true love, he knew her as a child

They lived a love of avarice though seeming meek and mild

They killed for fun and money and they preyed upon the weak

There was no place for hiding when your riches they would seek

But now the life they cherished was threatened by a witch

Whose heart was truly broken and whose life was in the ditch

For in her dreams, young Chantelle showed Paula what he’d done

With her power, she pushed her to a plan for when he’d come

In Paula’s dreams, she planted seeds of jealousy and hate

When Charlie reached his happy home, it was already too late

In dark of night, he sauntered like Odysseus coming home

A man who heard the sirens in the mist of sea and foam

Paula was in the kitchen bringing out fresh loaves of bread

He stopped and stood in fear and shame, he felt a sense of dread

But Paula turned to him smiling, she gave him an embrace

Penelope with her weaving, his home a welcome space

She kissed him long in welcome, and led him to the bed

She loved him hard and loved him long, then looked at him and said:

“Welcome home my darling, I’ve missed you ever so

Tomorrow you make breakfast and we’ll watch the flowers grow

For you’ve been gone so very long, I need to take some time

To remember how to keep you close and remind you that you’re mine”

When morning came he fried some eggs, brewed coffee in the pot

He sliced fresh bread and burned it, a cook the man was not

He laughed and turned, he felt her near, he thought he’d get a kiss

But in her hand she held a knife, so close she could not miss

Now Charlie pulled the knife out of the side of his bleeding head

How can I think, how can I speak, what evil have I bred?

“Paula, love, what have you done? Such harm we’ve done before

But toxic though our love has been, we’ve never loved each other more

Murders, sure, and violence, of affairs you’ve had the most

But now, you’ve stabbed me in the head for burning fucking toast?"

Just then he saw the knife he held, he’d seen it once before

It sat on Chantelle’s dresser with her poppets and herbal store

How was it here, so far away — in a place she’d never been?

Paula laughed maniacally, “She sent it in a dream!”

As Charlie died, she took the knife and plunged it in her breast

Of all the crimes she’d done with him, this one was the best

Charlie and Paula were found, her head upon his chest

A knife of fancy filigree lay near where they were at rest

The blood was thick upon the floor, pools of life run out

They wondered what had happened, what the fight had been about

Upon the stove, a shrivelled egg and a coffee pot burned dry

Two cups, two plates, a single rose — no clues here as to why

“Over there,” one pointed to a slice face down upon the floor

“It’s burnt!” another person cried, “I needn’t see much more.”

The cemetery is filled with stones declaring love and life

Paula and Charlie share one that reads, “Husband and his wife”

Beneath the words are dates, of course, but the part that means the most

Is a simple picture deeply carved of buttered and burned toast

***

This ballad was originally posted in Bouncin and Behavin Poems on Medium as my response to the Expansion Challenge posted by editor Martin Morrison.