Daffodils Live

BY CAROLE NICHOLS

Long ago and far away
There was a castle in the hills;
Set high among the wood pines
And surrounded by lovely daffodils.
In that castle lived a man
With a daughter, young and fair;
Her green eyes kind and alive,
With the sweetest laugh and honeyed hair.
For her, the father wanted only the best,
So he searched throughout the land
For a rich lord who could give her all;
One he thought worthy to take her hand.
They came to see her, one and all;
And though they were smitten, she said nay.
For she valued caring more than their gold;
So amongst the flowers she'd dream all day
About the shadowy figure she longed to see,
The person with whom she'd never part;
Who would slay her dragons and soothe her soul,
The only man who would win her heart.

Then one day there came a man to the hill;
A handsome knight of lowly birth.
His brown eyes spoke of integrity,
But only she could see his worth.
He owned only his horse and his sword;
His clothing bore none of the fancy frills,
But he danced with her in the meadow
And she made him a crown of daffodils.
Her father looked down on the penniless sir,
And commanded that he leave the keep.
Shut his ears to the pleas of his daughter;
Closed his heart as he heard her weep.
But love has a way of surpassing all walls,
And she was determined to be with her man;
So she met him within the pine-scented woods
And convinced him to wait and agree to her plan.
In the deep of the night when all was still,
Out of the castle she would go.
Together they'd find another place,
And embrace the love they so wanted to know.

In the castle high on the hill
The morning dawned, dismal and gray.
And such a wail came out of the keep,
For their sunshine had been spirited away.
A chill settled in, dark and damp;
The father mourned deeply, but never cried.
He shut himself away, kept to himself;
Never sought her out til the day he died.
The centuries passed, slow and long:
The castle crumbled over the daffodils.
Mold and dust, til all was ruins,
And the flowers vanished from the hills,
Then came a group of curious men,
Looking and seaching, digging so deep;
Trying to make history come alive
On the hill which once held the keep.
Down and down they looked and pried
Til they found a door long hidden away.
Though rotted and broken, they could tell
It had never seen the light of day.

And gathering there, they entered within;
Followed the passage, long and low.
Silent shuffling, one by one;
Till there was no where else to go.
The sight they beheld was incredulous;
They stared with disbelieving eyes
At two bodies intertwined in death,
And it took them a moment to realize
That this wasn't a recent burial tomb.
That the man and woman were centuries gone
Chained to the wall in this ancient grave
By the father who had died so alone.
And a shiver crossed each and every man,
But it wasn't the couple that gave them chills.
Twas the sight of the yellow that gave them pause;
They were surrounded by living daffodils.