A Tale For Children

by Shaun Lawton 

Wikki is a snuggly wuggly
Pretty Blue was cuddly too
Fuzzy Wuzzy was dropped eight feet
Zachary the owl was really neat

All these things I say are true
Now how many pets
remember you?

Smokey was a cocker spaniel
of deepest darkest black
Bambi was a small and spotted
spindly-legged fawn

Lancelot the ocelot and his twin brother
Ivanhoe romped until dawn amidst the pieces
of Bambi spread all over the lawn

Because Bambi got eaten
by a pack of wild dogs
who fell in from the woods
late at night while
the children slept

and the fire from
the fireplace licked
at the logs and all the
adults stood by and wept

because there was nothing that they could do
to bring Bambi back who was scattered
and shredded and gobbled-up by the pack
who though they're roaming around now
and feeling well fed,

they're looking for YOU and all of your friends
and family too to steal into your home
during the wee hours of night and
rip off your face with their teeth--

--they just might.

'Twas a terrible tragedy to behold
Smokey ran off with the murderous pack
the ocelots ate cockroaches,
got sick, and died.
Fuzzy slept under
the tire for the
very last time.

While Pretty Blue and Zachary flew
off into the cloud jungle blue
and Tangle Bones Rubber Head Wikki Wikki Kitty
was left to be cared for by Jen in the city.

~ fin ~