A castle poised so high in the sky
An impenetrable fortress
Real estate even the richest man alive couldn't buy
Shrouded by an enigmatic curse, say some sources
Rumor has it, the owner sacrifices many soldiers
Sending them on the treacherous journey to Mt. Parnassus
Demystify that beauty lies in the eye of some beholder
But rather in the hands of the one who orchestrates the epistasis
There are stories that this owner sent Oedipus himself -
To hear his prophecy from the mouth of the oracle
Even the King of Thebes couldn't escape his deteriorated health
So she sends more in search of why her prophecy has made this madness so horrible
Are these debts owed from a previous life,
A trespass who must now face spiritual wrath
Can a sum possibly be paid to ease this strife?
Before she sends Achilles down this dark and dangerous path
The townspeople say she too swam in the River Styx
In hopes of clamoring for Pythia's attention
As if the divinity would fall for those tricks -
So the owner was sent more trials of the illest intentions
From the ground of the forest floor, chosen ones have caught a glimpse
But once they have, they're already gone
Like forbidden fruit to their lips
To this shadow light, they are obsessively drawn
Transfixed by a dream they've never had
Survivors say it felt like a spell
The urge to traipse closer and closer could drive one mad
A mysterious puzzle leading them to the depths of hell
Only once they felt the flames,
Each one has managed to escape unscathed
The only thing catching fire is what remains
Remnants of Persephone's cries, begging to be saved
And then they come back to the local town bars,
To tell of their journey over shared ale
A laugh at the attempted capture as they pass around cigars
Dodging quite the bullet then fleeing bail
Haven't you heard of Perseus' grim destiny -
Or Hercules who faced those impossible labors?
All sent by that deceiving figure clandestinely
Yes it's true, we heard it straight from her neighbors
There must be a mound of skeletons in her closet
To have put such an evil eye on that tower
Rumors spike that her family is raising money to send a prophet,
In hopes of exorcising this ghost that haunts her every hour
That poor, wretched old soul
To have been taken to another planet only to be returned back here
Leaving glass shattered, pieces unwhole
No doctor had ever seen an illness so severe
Though not fatal, it may as well be
The townspeople guffaw that if it was, they'd be better off
So that no more soldiers would fall for that conniving repartee
Its' symptoms as contagious as a chest cough
It's as if one had visited Mars,
Only to be told it was never real
As if one could blindly recite the formation of Orion's Belt and his stars,
And then braille was no longer something you could feel
There's whispers it's a terror up close
Like Medusa turning her victims to stone
But few snicker that no one truly knows
What really sits up there on that throne
It's said that only in the late hours when night fades to morning,
Can an innocent bystander become prey
Diluted charm casting its' glow as if a forewarning
The kind no one would fall for in the logic of day
What blasphemy cast this curse,
What vulgarity could have been said to warrant such a storm?
It's only in the fondest of dreams does hex have a reverse -
Only there does the coldest of conversation become warm
Goddesses observe in horror
Fools praise their luck
Criminals would rather die than meet this torture,
By lightning one would rather be struck
A beauty from afar, the architecture complex as you near
People betting under the table on its' collapse
The sneers of a joke that have fallen on everyone except for one ear
A clean slate for an inevitable relapse
So the owner counts her coins as she waits -
They say now she's even tried to purify herself in the Castilian springs
In a desperate attempt to be placed back at that planet's front gates
A century old autopsy to which she clings
Haunting paces around to the beat of a shadow's tune
This precarious possession, hidden in plain sight so no one can see
A dance once known step for step beneath the moon
But all you'd see is one bereft figure tethered to this grave prophecy