#FlashFictionFriday: Ballad of Jennet Adair (reprise)

Jennet, she lies

‘Neath the white rose tree

And never again will she

Play false to me

T’was not my hands

Round her lily-white throat

But would that I could

Drown her deep in the moat

Her hair was as dark

As summer is fair

Her lips were for kissing

Sweet Rose of Adair

Jennet, she lies

‘Neath the rose tree white

My brother will hang

For her murder tonight

Jennet, she lies

‘Neath the white rose tree

Never again will

Those lips lie to me

T’was not my hands

Round her lily-white throat

She ruined my brother

She ruined us both

Played us like pawns

In the age-old game

Until she did misstep

To her sorrow and shame

My brother will hang

‘Neath the town hall light

And who will tell mother

What happened tonight?

Jennet, she lies

‘Neath the white rose tree

And never again will she

Play false to me.

The Ballad of Jennet Adair by Connie J. Jasperson was first published July 31, 2015 on Edgewise Words Inn, as a song her character, Huw the Bard, might have written. It is a story poem, written in a traditional, bardic style, and was inspired by the Child Ballads collected in the 19th century by Francis James Child.

Bouquet of Roses at the Window, Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller 1892 [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons