This is the story of Althea James
a girl who got caught up in all the wrong games
Her story is as old as the waters of the Thames
one of a strong-willed woman who refused to be tamed
She grew up in a house just southwest of Surrey
with parents who wished she’d grow up in a hurry
and hurry she did—and ran off in a flurry
in love with a man twice her age—oh, her mother worried!
And for a while it was bliss, let me tell you this,
No love had ever loved with the strength her first did
but the gods began to envy and call Althea their enemy,
and they tempted her lover into the tryst of the century
Althea ran and hid from the world like a kid
refusing to speak again until she was rid
of every memory of her lover and the wrong that he did
willing herself to never love again—oh, Heaven Forbid!
But the gods were not done, their fun had only just begun
they were the hounds; Althea was a fox on the run
and run she did—to the American South, and
bought a house on the bayou with trees all around
They say it’s too hot there even for the Devil
but Althea was resilient beyond Satan’s level
yet she swore she saw him in faces all over town
from the preacher’s coal black eyes to the banker’s constant frown
Althea did not fear, though she thought he was weird
But she raged at the preacher when he brought kids to tears
with his stories of fire, burning brimstone, and circles of Hell,
so she quietly arranged for him to go there himself
It was really quite easy for her, you see,
She simply offered to make the preacher some tea
then mixed in her favorite hydrangea leaves
and watched his body sink in to the bayous’ deep
The gods tried their damnedest, but Althea can’t be beat
They set the law on her tail, but the jury set her free
Her peers couldn’t vote guilty on the killer of a creep
And her sentence was a relief to the children he made weep
Althea headed out west into the desert on a lysergic quest
and this hypnotic cosmic jest became clear in her head
Heaven was a test, a red herring mythical conquest
to see how much blood a man would drain from the chest
of his brother in the name of a prosperous eternal rest
It was all upside down, everything up ‘til now
It wasn’t the Devil in those coal black eyes she’d found
It all made sense to her how she could finally get out
of this endless loop the gods chased her around
Althea fell to her knees and looked at the sky with a screech
then reached between her feet where her dagger was sheathed
She grabbed on the blade and cut into her nape
and pulled it to the front until her breath was abate
Her blood trickled quick, on the desert sand it dripped
pooling around her, a crimson mirror it made
a halo of lifeblood, reflecting her truelove in scarlet hues—
the Underworld’s Lord, her perfect bridegroom
Samantha Crowley 