OH HARK 20

She whirled around and saw a man who had a fiendish look
Was he a pickpocket, a drug peddler or a plain crook?
 " Would you like to have home cooked meal on sunday?"
Asked the  man who stood behind her holding a tray.

"Are you a bearer in some restaurant nearby?"
 Warily , she asked the  fiendish looking guy.
" I am a culinary consultant, not a waiter" , he said with alacrity.
Our hotel offers many a heirloom recipe, and depth and diversity".

 An itinerant  mandolineer suddenly appeared and   started to strum 
Standing next to a drummer who had his hands on a  drum.
"To the hotel let us go ,if music be the food of love, play on
Do  not look so bashful, let your hair down."

 The mandolineer and the drummer  started serenading the girl
 In whose heart a ribbon of fear started to unfurl.
To the notes of the  drummer  and the strumming mandolineer 
 The petrified girl added a tiny prayer and a lone tear.

 " We have reached the hotel" sang the culinary consultant,
 His walk was brisk and tone exultant . 
She walked toward a  room as though in a somnambulistic trance Taking in the grotesquely painted walls and the mildewed carpet in one fearful glance.

On a tree outside the hotel , sat a raven dark
Cawing a warning to the girl, oh hark. 
She headed towards the mantelpiece , in her shawl draped.
 Looked at  a framed photograph, and in horror gaped.