Harold, The Vengeful Spirit

One night I was sitting in my house,

In came scuttling a wild mouse,

Followed by a scream from Stella

My sleeping spouse.

The mouse was big, stocky and old;

His eyes shone like gold;

He squeaked: “I am your dead business partner Harold.”

Utterly puzzled, I said: “Brother!

Why have you come here?

What is the matter?”

“Your brother I am not;

I’ll one of these days cut your throat;

Why did you marry my wife Stella, the slut?”

“Of beauty and glamour, Stella was an incarnation,

Yet you despised her like poison

Since alcohol was your only passion,”

I said to Harold, the furious beast.

However, on revenge did he insist;

From which I wanted 

To make him desist.

“I’ll strangle both Stella and you;

This punishment is long overdue,

Now let me vanish from your view.”

The mouse changed 

Into a shadow-like figure;

I recognized he was Harold,

My dead business partner

And began to shiver with terror.

Stella and I were struck with panic,

Went to consult Father Hargevik

Who sent us to a monk dwelling in a cave at a mountain peak.

When we reached the mountain top,

Into the cave did come the golden-eyed mouse and stop;

Then came there

A large python 

And swallowed the mouse up.

Stella and I started running;

After us the python was hurrying;

We thought our end was approaching.

We heard a voice from Heaven:

“The python is the noble monk Stephen;

Don’t worry. To you, nothing will happen.”

The python assumed an angelic shape;

We stood rooted to the ground and stared at the beautiful form agape

Ashamed that there 

Was no need to escape.

The angel said:

"My real home is God’s abode,

If a boy or girl truly loves 

His or her beloved,

I descend to Earth to help

Him or her with powers from God.

True lovers like you go to Heaven;

Like Harold there are men,

Who are thrown into the burning Hell, bound in a red-hot chain.”