Never told Nursery Rhymes

The Warlock's Clock

The clock on the wall,
has been mounted up there,
for as long as the family knows.
Great grandfather found it
a long time ago,
and it sat there through all of his woes.

"the clock's always broken,
it cannot be wound,
don't you pay that old thing any mind."
Yet despite what he said,
it would chime every hour,
through no mechanism we could find.

Great grandfather warned us
"Don't speak your desires
if you are all alone with the clock.
don't speak any wishes
you wish to come true
keep your secrets under key and lock."

Great grandfather always
refused to be left
all alone in the room with the clock.
He'd flee from it's sight
like the sound of it's ticks
were the sound of the axe on the block.

Great grandfather lived to
a hundred and nine,
and he never felt fever or pock.
Yet his vigour, his life
seemed to drain from his face
if he heard the great chimes of the clock.

On the day of his death,
great grandfather curled up,
and began to wail, shiver and sweat.
"The foul thing is chiming
can you hear it, dears?
it is come to collect back my debt."

He rent up his clothes
and he covered his ears,
as the clock chimed and chimed through the night.
his corpse, when observed
held no signs of the cause,
and was soon diagnosed "death by fright"

Now time has long passed,
yet the clock ticks along,
and every now and then it will chime,
but as I get older,
I could almost swear,
that the ringing gets louder each time.