Three Wishes

Three Wishes

I thought I heard a woman’s voice

coming from somewhere in the dark

as I took a chilly late night walk

through an old abandoned park

“Three wishes” I thought I heard her say

her voice hanging in the wind...

like disembodied wind chimes

then I heard her say again...

“Three wishes for a broken soul

three wishes for your heart

three wishes for a weary spirit

awaits you in the dark”

Then just like a ghostly mirage

she appeared under a tree

and held a withered hand out

as she quietly beckoned me

“One wish for love

one wish for beauty

one wish for riches”

then she leaned in closer to me

Her breath smelled of rotting bones

her eyes were dark as coal

she smiled oh so fiendishly

as she tried to steal my soul

I quickly backed away from her

away from her wicked face

before she could forever trap me

in her sinister embrace

“Beauty fades just like a sunset

and riches won’t save lost souls

and love shifts just like the sand”

I told her, “this I’ve come to know”

She screamed a thousand screams

as the souls she’d trapped cried out

I could see their tormented faces

in the depths of her cruel mouth

Then she slowly vanished

like smoke from a distant flame

back to the depths of hell

from where she surely came

I may not have love or beauty

or riches just for show

But I have what so many lost

I still have a soul