MORE THAN YOU BARGAINED FOR

By John Grey

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More fool you for buying a house centuries old,
Twenty rooms, ivy covered, what did you expect?
Of course there's headless soldiers, so brazenly bold
They float the halls with wretched creatures of neglect
Formerly married to heartless barons, ice-cold
As cheerless air, where now and past times intersect.
No question, come midnight, ancient terrors unfold
Before the eyes of those too numb to genuflect.

Bloody-cheeked murdered minions mercilessly mock
The vain restraints of death, to grimly perpetrate
Revenge, and every luckless owner is in hock
To creeping nuns, addled heirs, raw, primeval hate,
To every kind of blanch-faced scare and heart-stilled shock.
It's not only location but hideous fate
And screeching wail and piercing scream and midnight knock
That count when it comes to matters of real estate