The Mayor’s Promise
My daughter Isa loved the Pied Piper story when she was little – mostly appalled by how the Mayor broke his promise…
Into his rooms the rats crept
Gnawing over his bed
With their sharp-toothed chatter
As if inside his head
So when the Pied Coat Stranger
Broke the council’s hollow
He knew where the coins slept
But not how the children would follow
Just a game he’d played before
Before before before
Get your way but do not pay
No more no more no more
You did not remove the rats
Said the Mayor’s tongue
It was just the music notes
That did what you say you’ve done
Forty gilders did I say?
Clearly you misheard
Here, I’ll give this one away
It’s all that you deserve
Just a game I’ve played before
Before before before
Get my way but do not pay
No more no more no more
I can play a different tune
Said the Pied Coat Stranger
& he led the children off
Into the mountain chamber
Nightly sits the Mayor now
On his crumbling throne
Beside him is the lame boy
Who was left alone
When the stone door closed him out
And he could not see
What the music promised
Far across the sea
So the Mayor lifts the pipe
With its twelve empty holes
And into all that darkness
All his grief he blows
Just a game we’ve played before
Before before before
Get ourway but do not pay
No more no more no more