The Chipmunk who could Cha Cha
Hello and welcome to my Blog.
A selection of pieces this week from “See you in the Big Time” (2011) and also stories taken from “The Chateau D’If Notebook” (2013);
A Hollow Dream
I dreamed the ocean was all books in waves;
Dictionaries and paperbacks,
With leaflets tumbling as the foam.
And when I stooped to my feet to pick one up;
All I could grasp was a till receipt,
‘Two croissants and a latte’ it read,
From an ocean of words this is all it said.
I dreamed the skies and clouds with music were filled;
The rain that fell on me was scales in showers,
The notes in drops.
I wrung my jacket out with music soaking wet,
To fill a cup;
But a ringtone was all I could hear.
From a symphony celestial,
Two notes sounding clear.
I dreamed the land was made of gold and jewels;
Nuggets as rocks and sovereigned pebbles.
The earth in Topaz strands of each size,
Shot through with emeralded mould and rubied rust.
Passing, I picked a grape; it was a double cloudied amethyst shot through with cracks.
From priceless Eldorado only this
With all it lacks.
Beautiful Illusions
The world’s been waiting for a sunrise
For several years now in fact
So today our truths were bundled
Into backs of cars
Bound for unmarked graves.
Beliefs beguiling were chosen and birthed
The realities were just too flat.
We believed the words it suited us
So beautiful we wanted them
With a little research you can find confirmation
Of your views affirming your needs.
So we changed the facts to fit our expectations
Like mayo with or without on our fries.
Just simple smoke and mirrors
We change our coat and shoes to fit our lies.
The Chipmunk who could cha cha
In the forest lived Mrs Chipmunk.
However Mrs Chipmunk tried, Mr Chipmunk was not satisfied. She would bring him a nut; it was not big or sweet enough. She would make his bed; it was not soft enough. And so on.
One day Mr Chipmunk got really angry.
“You are useless”, he shouted at Mrs Chipmunk. “The food you make tastes bad; the bed is always too hard!”
“You are completely useless!”
Mrs Chipmunk felt very sad and she nearly cried. But then she said to Mr Chipmunk.
“I can Cha Cha and serve seven cups of tea at the same time from a teapot balanced on my head!”
Mr Chipmunk stood up, opened his mouth, said nothing, sat down again, got up, said nothing, then sat down again.
After this whenever Mr Chipmunk complained too much, Mrs Chipmunk would look him in the eyes and say “I can Cha Cha”. And Mr Chipmunk would stop complaining.
And they lived in peace.
Moral: Have you a Mrs Chipmunk you live with? She can probably Cha Cha too!
The little woodpecker
Once in the forest lived a little woodpecker.
She flew from tree to tree and sang; her feathers like jewels. And all the other creatures in the forest loved her.
She was perfect, except for one thing...
Each spring at dawn the woodpecker would start to make her nest. “Tap,tap,tap”; she would go on the tree trunk “Tap,tap,tap”; making a hole for her nest.
And the other creatures could not sleep, and were unhappy!
“Why do you do that?” the other creatures complained, “We cannot sleep!” And the woodpecker replied; “I’m a woodpecker, each spring I must make my nest this way”.
While the other creatures of the forest were wondering what to say next, up spoke the rabbit.
“I can let you have some of my winter coat which is shedding now spring is here; perhaps you can use it to soften the “Tap,tap,tap” each morning”.
“I too can give you some fur” said the hare.
So the little woodpecker took the fur from the rabbit and the hare. And now every morning she would “Tap,Tap,Tap”; but not so loudly.
And the creatures could sleep again and were happy!
Once in the forest lived a little woodpecker. She flew from tree to tree and sang; her feathers like jewels. And all the other creatures loved her.
Moral: a woodpecker is what a woodpecker does, so consider!
The snake who couldn’t hiss
Mr Snake slithered urgently to his wife. Word had reached him from others that Mrs Snake had just given birth to a baby, so he could not wait to see the new arrival.
Imagine his concern when he saw his new baby son, but instead of smiling Mrs Snake was crying! “What is wrong”; he thought.
Coming closer to his wife, he heard his Son’s cries...
“Hiss, yah, gurgle,bop. Goo,hiss, mmrr,hiss”.
(Which means: “Morning world, what’s going on?”)
Not the right sounds at all for a snake to make!
They named their son junior and the years passed...
Mr and Mrs Snake had accepted junior could not hiss right; and loved him even if the other snakes made fun of him.
The other snake kids would say:
“Hiss,yuh, ruh, ergg,mrrr!”
“Hiss,yuh, ruh, ergg,mrrr!”
(Which means: nothing! They were just being cruel and making fun of junior)
And junior would go away feeling sad.
A short time later Mr and Mrs Snake learned that a new snake family had moved in to the forest; so they decided to visit them.
On approaching the home of Mr and Mrs Python, they saw that a small girl snake was playing outside. Noticing Mr and Mrs Snake and their son junior approaching, the girl snake came up to them.
“Hello, my name is Pythettina” she said.
Junior replied. “Hiss, hrrm, yup, hep, gror!”
(Which means: you are very pretty!)
Pythettina smiled and said. “How funny, let’s go play!
So she and junior went off to play, while Mr and Mrs Snake had tea with the Pythons.
Moral: hiss as you like, someone will love it!
Thank you for reading, till the next Blog, keep well and safe.
Best wishes,
Louis
This Blog and all contents, copyright Louis J. Casson 2016. Materials taken from “See you in the big time” (2011) and “Chateau D’If Notebook stories” (2013)