I lay in bed listening
To the mouse in the wall.
He doesn’t know I’m here,
I think I’ll call him Paul.
****
He always comes at bedtime
To find his winter stash.
He must be very hungry,
Scratch and scrape and bang and bash.
It sounds just like marbles
That he rolls above my head,
But I think it must be nuts,
They sound loud when I’m in bed.
****
I’m glad Paul won’t go hungry,
He works hard for every bite,
But I wish he’d work the day shift
So I could sleep at night.
“T-wit T-woo,” go the owls,
Sc-ratch and dangle, the spiders.
The witch is thinking, she frowns, she scowls,
New brooms fly by with riders.
***
A flickering light, the rising of smoke,
From the clearing, through the trees,
Gives away the location of quivering folk
Around the fire, on their knees.
***
In a fairy tale world with fairy tale rules
The wicked have much to fear.
They’ve been unkind, selfish, heartless fools,
Which won’t be tolerated here.
***
Fairy tales, creepy tales, mystical magic tales,
Castles and fairies and witches and ghosts.
Suspend disbelief for these ‘anything can happen’ tales,
Where innocents get rescued and evil gets smote.
‘Twas the night before the weekend,
And something was in the air.
His face looked concerned when he told me,
Though he tried to hide his despair.
****
“The internet’s stopped working!
I don’t know what to do!”
To ease his mind by distraction I said,
“The hot water’s stopped working too!”
****
He reached for my hand and squeezed it,
Breathed deep and smiled at me.
“At least after your cold shower,” he said,
“You can still have a hot cup of tea.”
****
[Inspired by an internet-free 3 days which turned out to be very liberating and enjoyable.  Internet’s back but not the hot water – that’s ok, cold showers are very refreshing 😉 ]
Violet's Vegan Comics 