Rhyme Uttered By A Slightly Mischievous Fairy Found Sitting Under a Magical Bush

by Samantha Henderson
See these berries, red and white,
Double helixed through the vine:
Scarlet garnet free of blight,
Milky pearls all in a line.

If you taste the berry red,
Luck and joy and wealth are thine,
Gold and rubies crown thy head,
All is yours that once was mine.

If you touch the berry pale,
Death and sorrow be thy fate.
Those you love shall pass the veil:
Brother, sister, children, mate.

Now I see you rob the tree
Of its fruit, the hue of sin,
Crimson juice now trickles free
Down your cheeks and down your chin.

Gracious me! I did mistake --
Confused, I was in error quite.
Fruit that's red your heart will break;
You should have gorged upon the white.

Samantha Henderson lives in Southern California. Her fiction and poetry can be seen in Strange Horizons, Realms of Fantasy, Lone Star Stories and Helix as well as previous issues of Goblin Fruit. Her first novel, Heaven's Bones, a dark Victorian fantasy, has just been released by Wizards of the Coast.

When asked to name her favourite weather, she replied, "it changes with my mood, but just now I'd love a thunderstorm followed by steady driving rain, preferably whilst ensconced in bed in the tower of a renovated castle."

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