71. Obsession

About nymphs, I know without fails
You have probably heard countless tales
Already, so why should you hear mine?
What could I possibly refine?

Now I'm not Ovid, I admit
(Would be sev'ral cent'ries late for it)
But stay and listen to my story
I promise you won't be sorry.

Let me tell you not about love
Surely you know enoug tales thereof
So how about obsession instead
And a night painted crimson red?

Once upon a time it began
When during a full moon night a man
Could not rest in Morpheus's arms
He wandered off under sev'ral charms.

Not awake he followed the trail
Laid to his feet by Selene, the pale.
Into the mountains she guided him
Where the world was so rough and grim.

The feet left bloody stains behind
Tracks which an Oread did then find.
She follwed them to the mountain's top
Where finally the man did stop.

The mortal man she did pity
So alone and far from his city
Caught in this obsession for the moon
Unaware his feet turned maroon.

The nymph thought and worried her brain
How she could free him from all the pain
The man surely felt all night and day
Eventually she found a way.

To Artemis she turned and prayed
Asking the virgin goddess for aid.
Her voice broke the silence as she spoke,
A sound to which the man awoke.

He turned 'round and at once mistook
The nymph for Selene, fooled by her look.
Love, to the pale beauty he confessed
At first he begged, then pushed and pressed.

Obsession numbed him, he didn't hear
When the nymph did vow, promise and swear
That she wasn't the queen of the night.
But words didn't end her desp'rate plight.

Artemis and Selene agreed
On punishing the mortal's misdeed.
Him, as punishment, they did enchant
And turned him into a small plant.

As pale and silver as the moon
The shrubby ragwort spread and it soon
Covered the entire mountain clime,
Now bound to the scene of the crime.

Thus my tale finally does end
And I hope you don't regret, my friend,
Spending your time on this little tale
About obsession, about bale.