JEFFREY AND PAULOOSE THE GHOST

One day in a Snake Island

Occupied by snakes and large anacondas

Lived on top of an old ancient banyan tree

In a great Indian Jungle

A ghost spirit named Pauloose

He was grey and white all over his wrecked body

And looked as if he had a huge potbelly

That tinkled when he laughed shrill and madly

High atop the sprawling branches of the old Banyan tree

He looked to see who passed by the haunting valley

And soon caught sight of a buckling stripling youth

Named Jeffrey

He saw that the young lad was brazen and bold

And could carry him on his shoulders

When he wished to cross the stream

From atop the jungle bridge

And below where it gleamed

 

The star crossed paths with the young and bold lad

On his way to find a princess he could marry

And be rich and live like a future King of a fairy story

As soon as he passed beneath the old Banyan Tree

He heard a strange cry and thought it was an owl

Or a kookaburra on the tree

But when he raised his pate from his shoulder

To see he was astonished and filled with shudders and creeps

That tingled through his gutsy spine and bone marrow

It was an abominable grey-and-white specter of horror

That glistened like a beast

He grinned and bared his mouth so big a black hollow cavity

Then promised to the young and bold man

Saying ghost Pauloose "If you help me cross the river

From up the bridge, you see

I will grant you potluck from pot skulls and pot skittles

Of the graveyard of skull drudgery sand and skull bones

That once was where my family of skeletons lay their

Weary bodies to sleep"

The youth thought not much about the strange plea

Yet the bargain was better than he thought it would

Turn out to be

Now he thought to himself

It would be pretty easy to fetch him a fair princess

Bride to be future King soon and she his beloved faery Queen

But the task he thought would be simple

As easy peasy as a pea

Would startle him like a hornet

Trapped inside a roaring lion's belly

As soon as the ghost

Who seemed feather weight sat upon his square shoulders

Locks of silver and grey falling like kiss curls

Covered his eyes and body

He struggled and staggered under the heavyweight

Of his round and immense pot belly

"O' hardly potluck!" sighed Jeffrey to himself

 The poor young bold lad

Now discouraged if ever he would have his way

Whether his wishes would turn true with such a fearsome

 Beast of burden upon his shoulders

Seemed so cumbersome and difficult

In the first place to make a step into the

Bridge over troubled waters below

 

But looking at the brighter side

Of the coin, he tossed before he

Took a turn for better or worse

He shinned up and bore with mettlesome pluck

What he thought he should overcome with a bear and grin

Without showing sorrow or woe

Then girding up his loins

With the heavy weight of the ghost Pauloose

He wiped the sweat pouring down his furrow and brows

And lifted the burden of more than a hundred and fifty pounds

As if he could beat the challenge

By now he almost crossed the bridge over troubled waters

And asked the ghost Pauloose

To kindly dismount and unhinge the loathsome barrier

From his bent spine

However hard and however good

He tried the horrid ghost would just

Not come off his poor back

Ghost Pauloose showed no mercy and continued

To sit straddling behind

Stuck on his body like a mouse to a block of blue moon cheese!

 

Then walked for several miles youthful Jeffrey

Now older than his age, he shed light on truth full of folly

So old and bent over the weight he carried the

Stubborn ghost Pauloose

This he did in the hot sun

And in the breezeless night without a star in the sky

Also on windy rainy days as he progressed far from the valley

Till he came to a little hut

In the deep woods

And saw a pretty maiden count

Something that looked like little flowers

White from red and blue from purple

You couldn't really tell

Even shoes from socks and toes from thumbs

Noses from lips and teeth from ears even tails and lips

For they all looked so different

In sizes, colour, and shapes each from another one

Terrifying and strange! 

I mean would they be flowers, lips, fingers, or toes

Shoes, petals, thumbs, noses, eyes or teeth and tails

Of someone maybe a witch or a bat

A turtle, crow, or a cat

A lion, a werewolf, a dog, a tiger or a mouse

He could hardly guess why she did what she did

Counting them one by one to rearrange her fingers

Those scary bits from inside the many pockets of her frock

And apron strings

The little maiden looked up so pretty a face

That couldn't be unnoticed

He fell for her instantly and blindly

'Twas indeed Love at first sight!

But she popped up a question

Before he could ask her what the reason

Made her slave to count such gory bits of horror stories

 So very carefully and thoughtfully

As if it were to him plain as a hideous crime

Her bright eyes sharpened

With a gleam that only shook him like a puppet on a string

And grimly he listened

For it was all gory as the ghost that settled

On his aching spine

She politely asked the young and bold Jeffrey as

If he were a Magician Maverick

"Could you please tell me the names?

Of these colourful scary things

I have to separate each from a different pocket

Piece by piece, bit by bit, one by one

I can hardly remember what the witch

Bade me to count

Only told to separate red and white

Purple and blue

If you do help me I can stir up the ladle

And serve you hot potato mash

And beef stew from the pot on the stove"

 

Jeffrey was tired, hungry, and weary

And took up the challenge once again

He looked at all the eerie things

And they at him

And really couldn't try if he even wished

Or feel as what the things imagined

He thought them to be made out of

Maybe human's grievous sins!

They jumped and leaped from her fingers

As she counted

Letting not moss slip between his toes

He quickly asked the specter wraith Pauloose

To help him out and solve the jinx of the riddle

Pauloose looked at the flying bits

Of eeriness and horrorsome pieces

Like ears, toes, fingers, lips, thumbs, shoes

Noses, petals, toes, eyes, teeth and tails

And began to laugh giddy-headed

"Why" said he

They are my little ghost beads that I

Lost the other day when you

Slept before you reached the heart

Of the deep woods of the witches' hut

And whispered in his ear lowly..... "Japongelies"

 

The young and bold youth Jeffrey

Thought for a while

"What a silly name"

But yet said the absurd word before the pretty maid

"Japongelies"

Lo! All the ghostly eerie things

Collected in their proper colours

They were stray ghosts' bits, pieces, and parts

 Belonging to all different colors

Red, violet, purple, and blue

Then the fair maiden brought out a bowl

For the hungry and weary traveller

With a ghost sitting on his bent spine

And laid out a scrumptious dinner for the two

Only she saw the invisible ghost

Perched on his hunch-back shoulders

And no other till now determined

Why was he bent like an old man

Till the butterflies flew from inside their empty bellies

While even the ghost had his hands

Full of beef stew and mashed potatoes

Now he went to sleep just outside the hut

Where the pretty maid layout

For him, a mat and pillow to rest upon

With the silvery and grey kiss curls

Of the ghost named Pauloose

Hanging from his head, face and body

 

The next early morn'

Once again carrying the heavy burden

Of the horrid beast of misery

He bade the pretty maid goodbye

And promised her she would be soon free again

From the grasp of the wicked witch

All because he guessed the ghost's name

"Japonjelies" which was truly correct

And nobody knew what happened after

He turned his back with the heavy load

Of the ghost Pauloose behind him

The poor young and bold youth

Now sauntered ahead and reached

The city where all people

Joyous and happy rejoiced

Circled around a king sitting in a palanquin

Carrying him as light compared to the

Burden of young and bold Jeffrey

The King it seems was on his way to his castle

To meet the grooms to find

The best suited for his daughter the princess to marry

The young and bold youth was happy for a moment

So frabjous! So ecstatic!

But so short-lived was his spurt of joy invented

Soon he remembered the cumbersome weight he carried

The silver and grey kiss curls that fell on his face

Forehead and body

And though it was impossible to hide his hunchback

As old as a canary

With a hump of a camel

Before the mighty king

And win the hand of his beautiful daughter

Who would be repelled by his strange fate of misery

Bearing an invisible ghost named Pauloose on his bent back

 

Full of tragedy he swore such a feat as this unravel

Before his very eyes! An eyesore! Sight for sore eyes

Abandoned the thoughts he had so wished dearly

And deeply in the first place to accomplish

Now seemed so far and teary

But the horrid ghost laughed once again

At so tear-jerking a tale

Like a wise old owlet and a jocund Kookaburra

And told the young and bold traveller

"Do not fear and enter the portcullis

Of the foreboding castle by wading through the moat

It has a snake pit

And if you manage to walk through it

I shall not be a burden on your back

And shall go back to where I belong

The solid branch of the old Banyan tree to hang"

The young bold boy was terrified

To have to walk through cobras and anacondas

He should never last he surmised

To reach inside the great palace Woe Begone! Alas!

Yet stoutly and boldly as was he

Rough-hewn, bold and tough

Took up the challenge once more bravely

He closed his eyes

"Do or Die" he mumbled as he walked past

The snake pit of cobras, pythons, and anacondas

That jeered, hissed, leered, and hypnotised

 

Now from atop the fortress of the magnificent castle

Stood the pretty princess

Who saw the bold and young youth hobbling past down below

With the weight of the ghost on his hunchback body

Surprised and marvelled as he dared and never let go

Goggled at his bravery! In total disbelief.....

Awestruck with wonder and astonishment

She turned her hands out in the air

And flung out a ghost necklace bare

Full of the lips, tails, fingers, toes, shoes, flowers, petals

Thumbs, eyes, noses, ears and teeth

And as it fell deep down below

Right inside the poison snake pit

The sixty-six snakes turned

To "Japonjelies"

Another sixty-seven ghosts indeed

And the one that was added

Was the ghost Pauloose to its long tail, hiss, and rattle

Lo! Behold! The snakes that turned into nothingness

Disappeared in a poof and puff as if it was all a bad dream

Into red, blue, purple, and white smoke and dust

The young and bold lad

Was freed at last from all his beast of burdens

And entered the gates of the great castle happily

 

The king upon seeing so fair a lad

Asked him if he wished to see the pretty princess

Who would choose if he were to be her prince

And future King of the land of happiness

The lad danced and his feet touched above the grounds

Yet stood solemn and serious as a Prince should

Before a young Princess

Now the princess strode into the royal hall

Wearing a masque in a masquerade procession beeline

Like one of the hundred maids in waiting

Dressed in simple garbs just like all of them

So he couldn't tell the difference

And she told the young and bold youth

 To find the correct maiden from all the rest

He would marry

The youth named Jeffrey was flabbergasted

Befuddled by her strange query but yet unshaken

Stood firm on his ground

And did as she told him

 

Till all of the hundred maidens stood afore

Him bearing to show their hidden pretty faces from their scarves

He saw one by one tooth and tail

Lips, toes, feet, flowers that decked their gold and brown

Tresses, eyes, thumbs, shoes, fingers, noses, ears and teeth

And was reminded of the "Japonjelies"

Then however one who stood out from all the rest

Was the humble pretty maiden of the witch's cottage

Without further ado, he pointed to the

Beautiful maid, he had met on one of his

Cumbrous journey with the beast of burden

All the rest of the hundred maidens as soon as he pointed

His finger turned to old Beldams

Indeed witches of the ghost's necklace

"Japonjelies"

And the one who he chose was in fact

The blessed Princess

Who he married

 

The young and bold youth Jeffrey

Said goodbye to all the "Japonjelies"

And with his bride on horseback

He sauntered through the valleys

And over the strange bridge underwaters

He traversed to the spot of the old Banyan Tree

And soon appeared the hideous ghost

Laughing like a wise owlet and a jocund Kookaburra bird

Said the young and bold Prince Jeffrey

To Pauloose the ghost of the old Banyan Tree

"Thank you Ghost Pauloose

You have chosen for me the right bride

After the burden of your ghost

Made me cross over troubled waters

A bridge over the river

To a great castle through a moat over the venomous snake pit

That I waded with courage and dare

To lead me to my Princess of dreams of the land of Happiness

And all her hundred maids in waiting

Your priceless ghost necklace Japonjelie witches

Goes to show how courage

Shows us the path to success

And accepting the fearful challenge by being bold and fearless

To accomplish what we fear to dare!

This was the end of the awesome adventures

Of Jeffrey and the ghost Pauloose

Till you decide one day

To carry your beasts of burden

On the bridge over troubled waters

And through the wind of change

With silver and grey kiss curls falling

Overhead face and bodies

Win hands down

The plucky prince or mettlesome princess

 Of your dreams one day

Of the great castle of Happiness Valley!