On the Road with Silver John: "One Other"

[For previous ballads about the Balladeer, click the "On the Road with Silver John" label under Features in the right sidebar.]


"One Other"

At the Bottomless Pool high atop Hark Mountain,
A scorned woman engages in furious spellcasting.
By making offering to an entity called One Other,
She hopes to secure John's love everlasting.

She'll want John's heroics, though, more than his heart,
Once One Other rises up from the deep.
For the half-formed thing's a hopping nightmare,
And the price of its summoning is steep.


Manly Wade Wellman's short story "One Other" can be found in Owls Hoot in the Daytime & Other Omens