Forgotten Fairy Tale
Chani Petro
What happens to a forgotten fairy tale?
Does it lose the rhythm of its words
Like an actor forgets his lines?
Or disappear like the sun behind the moon during an eclipse
And vanish from view?
Do its pages shrivel up like a leaf consumed by fire?
Or fade sweetly and lose shape
Like a flower diminishes after it blooms
Maybe it just falls apart, sentence by sentence
Like a crumbling canyon wall
Or does it sit in the back of a library waiting for the next lonely bookworm?
Francis The Frog
Louis R. Nobleman
Francis the frog sat on a log and sang a country song
Purple with spots lots lots and a tongue ten inches long
She sang of despair of having no hair she sang of rainy days
She sang of the moon and whistled a tune
And dreamt of pink mayonnaise
She sometimes would think of chocolate ink
Potatoes with sparkles of blue
She'd hop to the beat of raccoons feet
And swoon and cry at the moon
Then one day while out at play she paused by a big tree trunk
Got a kiss on the nose so the story goes
And now is an orange and green skunk
Now she just sighs and crosses her eyes her fragrance
Is roses you see
She's loved everywhere and it's true I swear
She lives with a snake in a tree...
Sometimes at night if the wind is right and the glow of the moon is fair
She sits on a limb and scratches her skin and picks out the bugs in her hair...
If this story seems all wrong don't be a frog singing country songs...
To all frogs who would like to be a prince
and all princesses who are frogs.
How To Stop An Elephant
Frank Delgado (01/24/03) |
There wasn't much time left; an elephant would be back tomorrow to destroy their homes and something had to be done to stop him. Like clock work each Friday around noon the ground would rumble then shake to announce another round of destruction. If only they could stop him, but how? He was taller and stronger than all the ants combined.
So the ant colony called a meeting to develop and draw up a battle plan to defeat him. "Does anyone have any suggestions to stop him?" asked the village Elder. The crowd was silent, each member searching each other for any suggestions but none was spoken.
Then a little ant from the rear of the assembles yelled out, "I know, we can step on the elephant".
"What! Who said that?" Asked the elder with a frown on his face searching the crowd.
Before the villager could answer another villager shouted, "You have it backwards elephants step on ants, we don't step on elephants they're too big. Let us move the village".
Then another shouted, "No! let us stand and fight him with an army of ants."
"That is it, we will fight him with an army and drive him away" shouted the elder. The crowd cheered raising their clenched fist in the air as a sign of defiance for the intruder and unity of the village.
The next day the villagers were posed in preset positions awaiting the signal. Then the ground started to rumble which was the go ahead to rally the troops in their formations. From the sideline the children called out to their fathers to cheer them on and to take care. Little Emma yelled to her father, "Don't forget Dad step on him". Her father Jose turned, smiled, chuckled then winked in her direction.
"He's coming, he's coming!" shouted the elder. The ants in formation started to fight for the rear of the line and the smallest of them was pushed to the front: Jose. Jose, go tell the elephant he can't smash our homes anymore or else we will fight him.", "Who Me? Why me?" Jose asked in a quivering voice. "Because you are in the front, Son.", "O~~~K" he answered feeling he was as good as stepped on.
Jose was right in the path of the elephant and he nervously waited for the elephant to come out of the jungle. The ground started to tremble and suddenly the elephant appeared as if by magic rushing toward him. Jose yelled out "Stop!". Then covered his eyes with his hands and started to pray: expecting to be squashed by the elephant. Nothing happened! He opened his eyes to see the toe nails of the elephant and the tip of its trunk sweeping the ground in front of him. "Wow," he thought, "I Stopped an elephant. "Jose, with renewed courage, raised his head upward toward the elephant and yelled out, "Hey Mr. Elephant, please don't smash our homes. Lets be good neighbors and share the jungle. The watering hole is big enough for all of us."
The elephant blew his truck in defiance as he swung it wildly in the air and moved closer to Jose. He lowered his head to look Jose right in the eye.
"I don't want to be a good neighbor; I want all the jungle!", said the Elephant. "Out of my way little ant?"
"But you can't do that!" Jose shot back without thinking.
"How are you going to stop me? I am bigger than you Oh, Oh, Oh," laughs the elephant.
"True You are larger but we are many!" Jose said as he turned to point to all the ants behind him. But they were gone as if the earth had swallow them up. "Oh, Ho, Ho", laughed the elephant. Jose knew he was in trouble. The blast from the elephant had scared the other ants away leaving Jose all alone to face the enemy.
"Looks like it's just you and I doesn't it, Mr. Ant", then out from the leaves stepped little Emma who started to scold the elephant for being so mean. The elephant charged at Jose and with one swipe of his trunk tossed him high in the air. He tumbled in mid air and landed on the neck of the elephant.
Now Emma was angry, and with her eye brows knitted she marched up to the elephant and said "Hey that is my Dad and he is going to stop you, so go away before you get hurt!".
The other ants hid under the leaves and watched in horror as little Emma faced the elephant. Jose on top of the neck of the elephant tried to get his daughter's attention to motion to her to run.
Emma looking from the corner of her eye caught her dad waving and waved back. Then she yelled up to her father "Hi dad!" she turned back to the elephant and yelled, "Now we got you! Right where we want you. Mr. Elephant; Ok Dad, step on him."
He screamed back, "Run Emma run!".
The elephant blew his trunk and raised his ears as he whipped around to see who she was talking to. Jose was tossed again into the air by the force of the elephant's turns. As he came down, he missed the neck and was swept into the elephant's ear as the ear flaps closed. Emma kept on yelling step on him dad; step on him! Jose bounced around in the elephant's inner ear drum as the elephant turned to look for who was going to step on him. The elephant kept on hearing thundering pounds like huge foot steps coming his way. He turned faster and faster trying to see where the noise was coming from. And with each turn Jose bounced faster and faster against the ear drum increasing the elephant's fears. "Step on him dad; Step on him dad," Emma kept on yelling.
The elephant could not take it any longer and he ran into the jungle with its trunk swinging and ears raised high and open. The suction from the flaps opening forced Jose out of the elephant's ear and tossed him down to the ground. The elephant's foot just missed him.
Emma ran to her dad, hugged him and told him, "I knew you could do it, I just knew it. You just had to believe in yourself." Jose with a broken leg and a bent antenna smile at his daughter.
Then the colony came out from underneath the leave cheering and carried Emma with her dad away on the crowd's shoulders. And the elephant never returned. The End
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