Ah…these elders!

by Bakhtawar Ahmed | Siddique Public School, RWP

In the times when I was new
When even the elders knew not much
A raconteur told me what he knew
About a naughty, nasty girl
A tiny little shrimp named Sue

One day her parents left to buy
Some grocery from the grocery store
Alas! the two knew not what terror
In their house might be in store
On learning the dangerous bomb all alone on the house!

A seed of mischief began to grow
In Sue’s wriggly, jiggly mind,
She crept to the kitchen to steal some flour,
Out of the kitchen shelf.

Like as a tiger moves towards its target,
So did little Sue creep towards her prey,
But the moment she opened the wretched kitchen’s door,
Lo and Behold!
A dirty, grisly beastly python
She saw on the floor!

“Heavens!” she shrieked. “Great heavens!” she cried,
“Never such a dirty thing have I seen in my life!”
She banged the door shut
And with a reversed role.
She now ran like a hare
Followed by a hound,
With bristly hair and tight shut eyes.

After half an hour came the much awaited time,
When the dangerous bells went dime-dime-dime,
Little Sue sprinted to the door,
And opening it, stood, like
An innocent in the court.

“Ho-ho!” the father said, “I smell something wrong!”
“Cripes!” the mother said, “I smell the truth,
The truth which is burning in the culprit’s mind,
Like Bob’s sandwiches I burn every time,
I put in the oven to cook!”

“But mom,” she said, “my conscience is clear,
My nose is clean and hands aren’t red.”
“Let’s see,” said father, “if you are a liar!”

They started scrutinizing the house’s each floor,
But nothing was found wrong in the kitchen,
Nor in the bedroom, nor in the restroom.
The dejected parents thought
They were wrong after all!

“Bob!” said mother, “I’ll burn you a toast,”
“And heavens!” she said, “stop picking your nose!”
“But mother,” said Sue, “Oh mother!” she cried.
“Please don’t proceed a bit ahead,
Because doing so can cost you your life!”

“There!” said father, “we were wrong as I said!”
“The little squirt probably had some plan up her head.”
“Daddy,” said Sue, “Oh daddy!” she cried.
Today I saw on the kitchen’s floor,
A big disgusting snake as big as a door!”

“I ‘will’ go and open the door,
And see where’s the snake on the floor.”
So the foolish father welcomed his doom
Inside the kitchen he went,
And soon his shrieks did rent,
The air of that noisy town.

To the hospital, in his agony, he was rushed,
Where he was given painful treatments and injected anti-venous
And on returning home, he announced to his bewildered wife,
“Never again in my life,
Will I ignore even some
NASTY LITTLE GIRL!”