Today, I start posting up the five staves of the rhyme of A Christmas Carol I've been working on sporadically over the last couple of Christmases. This time, though, I've decided to finish it (I still haven't as I type this but hopefully in the next three days I will have). 

Here is the first, the second to come tomorrow!

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STAVE ONE

Ebenezer sat down at his old writing desk

When at the door knocked Edmund Harrison, esq.

Scrooge opened the door to a faceful of tin

Which, when it was shook, made a metallic din

“What do you want, I’m a damned busy man!”

He battered away the old donation can

“We would kindly accept any cash for the poor.”

“No,” Scrooge replied, and he slammed shut the door

“Something for nothing!” he cried to the wall

“All this money I have, I worked for it all.

“And they want me to give it – they’re taking the piss!

“My old partner’d be sick if he heard about this!”

Ebenezer had cash, and he had bloody loads

The gold stuff was piling up in his abode

He didn’t like sharing, the stingy old git

And never would he give a penny of it

Bob Cratchet looked up from his book of accounts

“Surely you can give them a little amount.

“It’s a time for giving, it’s Christmas, be nice!”

Scrooge looked at him coldly and cursed once or twice

“On the subject,” said Bob, “Can I ask that I may

“Be with my family for Christmas day?”

“You want a day off?”  Scrooge choked on his words

He couldn’t believe what he thought he just heard

It took Bob some talking, but Scrooge finally caved

“You go, but remember your wage will be waved.

“Now leave me alone, all of you, go away.”

Like his nephew Fred who’d come over that day

All full of joy, with a song in his step

But Scrooge would refuse to share in with the pep

And would certainly not join their dinner

That covetous, wrenching and clutching old sinner

The sun soon did set and the old arse went home

Put striped jammies on, and a cap on his dome

He got into bed, and blew out the light

When a clink from downstairs made him sit up in fright

His eyes went all wide when he saw the bright shape

He watched it walk in, his eyes all agape

It might have been living, dead, or yet worse

It walked through the door, as slow as a hearse

Then Scrooge saw its face through decomposed skin

And he recognised the face of who had walked in

“Ebenezer,” said the ghost of his friend

Scrooge looked away and he tried to pretend

That he couldn’t see what was standing right there:

But he couldn’t escape Jacob Marley’s dead stare

His graveyard expression, all twisted in pain

He carried with him great monstrous chains

“I come with a warning,” the ghostly man said

As he approached, Scrooge climbed out of bed

“You cannot be real, my head’s playing games!

“Must’ve been dinner, my stomach’s in flames.

He pushed past the ghost and made for the door

But was stopped by a cold hand, and fell to the floor.

“All day I’ve been showing you omens and signs!

“All part of redemption – of my own design.”

Marley loomed over the tiny old man

“Now listen up, pal, I’ll go over the plan.

“You’re horrid and selfish and no one likes you.

“A change of behaviour is long overdue.

“Because of all this, tonight you won’t sleep.

“The things you shall see tonight shall make you weep!”

Scrooge stood up and sat on his mattress, and sighed

“You’ve not been the same, you know, since you’ve died.

“What happened to you? You used to be cool.”

“By morn, you’ll appreciate this season of Yule.

“I pay for my past, to Hell I’ve been sent,

“And come as a warning, so you might repent.

“It’s still not too late to make better your ways!

“With luck you’ll be fixed before Christmas day.”

In silence Scrooge tried to make sense of the words

The warning he heard just sounded absurd.

The ghost just continued in his ghostly tone

A morbid fusion of dark cries and moans.

“Tonight, my old friend, three ghosts you will see.”

And paused for a second. “Well, four counting me.

“And they will show you how awful you’ve been.

“When your past, and your present and future you’ve seen.”

And like that he vanished, leaving Scrooge in his richness

But popped back for a second to shout “Merry Christmas!”

And once gone again, Scrooge sighed in relief

He slept in the calmness of that cold Christmas Eve

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