My Poem: BBC Sherlock: Blank Verse: The Hitchhiker: Gen

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Title: The Hitchhiker
Fandom: BBC Sherlock
Word Count: 200
Lines: 32
Poetic Form: Blank verse
For: GYWO Yahtzee - Sevens and the GYWO 7 Stories, 7 Days, Day 3 prompt: Write the backstory of a hitchhiker in 200 words or fewer.
Summary: A modern version of "The Musgrave Ritual."
Prompt:


A familiar-unfamiliar voice spoke,
recalling cleverness as more-than-tricks.
‘I’ve got a problem. Something strange. Would you?’
He would. His last quid went to fare-and-kit.
To judge a cover, Musgrave place-and-squire
were bound-in-hide, but first impression lied
and told the truth: the Musgrave problem was
an out-of-time anachronistic gift:
an enterprising aide-de-camp was sacked
for prying then decamped without a trace;
a fretful-fearful-frightened housekeeper
soon followed, disappearing after days of nerves.
The ancient Musgrave riddle proved to be
a priceless Christmas-coming-four-months-late.
Untangling clues: the lore, the weathervane,
the verse, the shadows cast by elms and oaks.
He poured over musty archives, blueprints.
He traced each stone with curious fingertips.
He followed in the missing snoop’s footsteps
and found a trove of bones-and-rotting-flesh.
The clever sneak had learned too late the risk
of co-conspiracy. The housekeeper’s
exact aforethought, malice wasn’t clear;
her absence, however, suggested taint.
The treasure had been pillaged, found-and-lost.
A gem-stripped crown. A chalice un-gilded.
It was an archeological dig,
but not a hoard. His pockets full of thanks,
he left with nothing more than what he’d had
before, except that which he’d never thought
to find: direction. He stood at road’s edge,
extending arm and thumb with certainty.

Comments

[smallhobbit]

I like this updated version of The Musgrave Ritual - it works very well.

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Thank you!

[castiron]

Lovely! The final lines especially work.

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Thank you very much! Glad you liked it!