Maid of Mabanglu
It is claimed by picnickers who bathe
In Mabanglu, a siren maid takes
Every year, her due toll of the dead
Whom she lures to her lair 'neath the waves.
Wrung is this tale from the feverish lips
Of a youth whom they sought was quite mad
But his story sounds true for he barely escaped
From that ordeal where others did not.
Moaned the youth in inaudible groans,
"I was swimming alone when there came
A sweet maiden who also swam there.
And we splashed, and we laughed, and we raced.
But she swam far away and away,
And I followed her there in the depths
Till she vanished among mossy rocks
Still I followed to see where she went.
But I saw that the cave's mouth was small
So I stuck my head there to see,
In the dim, greenish depths, I beheld
A most terrible-looking Monster!
The Thing leaped up to strangle my neck
While I struggled to pull out my head;
I was free from that hole at long last---
My friends found me more dead than alive!"
Now the Mayor puts "No Swimming" signs,
Which young fools disobey all the time,
So, each year The Maid of Mabanglu
Takes her toll. Who is next--- is it you?
(Mabanglu is a deep creek in the writer's town.
Many wild flowers fill the air with sweet scent,
hence the name, Mabanglu.)
