THE BANSIDHE

You will with the bansidhe chat,

and find her good at heart.

When I was just a Wee Lass, Me

Granmother told me about the Bansidhe.

She's not quite a ghost, she would say,

But the spirit of the Faerie folk.

She appears like a young girl

on the eve of a family death, and wails and

cries through the night.

Me Gran winked at me Sayin'

"Perhaps you too will hear the bansidhe cry

when death comes to take me home"

and this filled me with fear.

My grandmother grew very ill in the late harvest month.

My grandfather's grief was great to see his love

in so much pain and agony.

Many weeks she spent in feavorish torment,

and in late October the roumors began.

Farmhands were spottin' a young girl walkin' alone in the woods. They would call at her, but she would just..... fade away.

My grandfather, hearin' the stories, began to

leave his door open wide. He must have known it was time.

I woke up in the night and saw her walkin'

twards the house. I pulled the blankets over my head and listened.

As she came inside, I heard her make her

way up the stairs, I heard her make her way to

the attic, I heard her push open the latch

to reach the roof.

I heard her cry.

The moon turned blood red that night.

And death came for my grandmother.

Perhaps someday, too, you will hear the bansidhe cry.