This poem has been inspired by the “dress-up” games played by children, where they let their imagination run wild, imagining themselves as valiant knights or regal queens. Today, I thought that we should also let ourselves be swept away in the charming fantasy of one such incident…
One day,
Up on my head went a creaky bucket,
And on my feet slid Grandpa’s old boots,
And donning the old bat I decided
That today I was Sir Nicholas Right
Up again with an adventure in sight
My trusted friend Mr. Teddy by my side.
Teddy was as brave as a hundred bears,
and I as strong as a hundred men,
And so it was today that we entered the enemy’s lair
Hoping to save the world once again.
Down the stairs we dashed,
Through the door we jumped,
Tip-toeing across the dew-topped grass
To where we knew the garden gnomes snored,
And sat shining with vicious allure.
The gnomes; tiny teeth chittered,
And their malicious sticks glittered.
But we held steady and flung upon them,
Determined to crush them!
But our swords who could slice through air
Quailed beneath their pronged snares, And so we were stuck,
And so our story ended,
Two martyrs who landed a fatal blow
But ended their lives to destroy the gnomes.
Spread eagled on the grass
Was where my mum found me,
With my rickety bucket and my old bat,
And the little gnomes without their little hats.
And so I was dragged back to the house,
Where Teddy and my knight days were doused.
But I swear I can still hear
The garden gnomes laughing
As they glinted in the evening sun.
– Meher Narula, Delhi Public School, Noida
I like this!