The Brewer and his Shiny Wife

Working alone,
with stick and bone.

Dark in mind,
but hopeful and kind.

Brewing with laughter, sweet as can be.
No one will ever suspect it was me.

Adding toad, leaf and bark.
Oh my, this taste will leave its mark.

Running around the tree for fun.
Until morning, bright with the sun.

Then down in the dark, a hop and a dive,
keep myself hidden and safe in the hive.

Always in mind is the best plan of all,
taking small steps to crumble the wall.



Above and away in the castle of the city,
the rulers argued and had no pity.

Order of the day was punishment for a crime,
someone bright and cunning had stolen their time.

How could a subject dare mock them this way?
When all they ever wanted was to sleep through the day.

The sentence was delivered with fervour and hate,
the unlucky was given a disastrous fate.

"You are to remain here for the rest of your life,
no heed will be taken to you being a wife.

None will be allowed to visit you for an age,
this is how we choose to handle this outrage."



She cried and fell to her knees with a thud
this time she had really ended up in the mud.

To never see her kin and children so young,
she screamed in panic and dark curses were flung.

Carried kicking in shackles to a cell,
locked up tight and left there to dwell.

Moving to a corner she sat down and sighed,
called on the glimmer she always had inside.

The walls reflected the magnificent glow,
she shone like blinding sunshine on snow.

When finally she rose, a shimmering white sun,
her mind was stilled and bursting with fun.

The world she stepped into was lightyears away,
beyond known space, behind a bright pulsars sway.

Down on the forested moon orbiting her home,
she sat and looked up at the star filled dome.

Here she would stay til the time was right,
when her captors had been shaken with concoctions might.



Down in the deep I was done with my brew,
now how to get it to the rulers table and stew.

Disguising myself as a fine servant girl,
wide round the belly and adding a twirl.

The belly was needed to hide the pot,
too bad it was still so scalding hot.

Stifling my screams and dancing like a fool,
I charmed my way past the guards acting cool.

Into the kitchen and scaring the staff,
everyone out, I will have the last laugh.

Where is that stew, why hide it from me,
do they not know I harm them for free?

At last there it is, in the corner all alone.
Would they ever notice if I added a bone?

I run over wildly with a smile ear to ear,
then make a sweet salto like a true musketeer.

Landing in the cauldron I feel cosy and hot,
surprised to realize this won't help out a lot.

Climbing back out I curse my mistake,
no time for bathing for goodness sake.

Remembering the goal I came here for,
I pour the brew in and stir with an oar.

A noise very close made me jump like a goat,
dash behind a bench, a tightness in my throat.

In through the door comes a guard looking sharp.
A wave of my hand and he's changed to a carp.

Before my conscience failed I was out the door,
now to the cell, which was on what bloody floor?

I past a servant girl and the chef in the hall,
on their merry way to fetch the rulers fall.


With a spell and a flash, I was past them quite quick,
in a bind it was always a pretty neat trick.

Stumbling upstairs to the tower heaving for air,
I hoped I at last would find my lady of flair.

At the top there was nothing but a fine woven door.
What's this foul magic, have I seen this before?

I sent out a thought but nothing came back,
only a silence and the duck's kwack, kwack, kwack.

Don't get me started on that feathered pest,
He should've stayed at home with all of the rest.

Looking through options and glaring at the cloth,
I smile, there from above comes a clever moth.

It looks at me funny, I'm handsome I know,
I try to gain points with a bow down low.

"Hi there lil bud, whats up with that weave?"
It looked at me funny and just couldn't believe

that a big bipedal could ask something so strange
This dude must be crazy, in need of a change.

It buzzed in my ear and opened the weave
pointed to the room and begged me to leave.



Inside I was finally there by her side,
my emotion was strong and difficult to hide.

Not that it mattered she was in a trance,
I picked her up and was off in a dance.

Down through the stairs and hallways so long,
what was that word in the escaping spell song?

She stirred and was awake there in my arms,
instantly I was weak she had those natural charms.

My knees gave away and we were on the floor,
this was pretty bad for my knighthood score.

She laughed and hugged me for a long long time,
In the distance an alarm just then started to chime.

We were up and panicked, running for our lives,
after us came big guards with axes and knives.

Rounding a corner we came into a dining room,
I recognize the cauldron and smile at the doom.

Around us are royalty sleeping snugly and sweet,
we each do a selfie and a wonderful tweet.

From this hall there is no escape
I open a window and pull on a drape.

Tying the fabric to a supporting beam,
I grab my loved one and try not to rip a seam.

Out the window and climbing cloth down the wall,
sadly I cant tie and we start to fall.

She looked at me disapproving and her eyes were aflame,
with a word incoherent she made us land all the same.



Down safely on the ground outside on the castle yard,
we ran and I tried keeping up, me and my lard.

Out through the gateway, forceful magic, flying guards,
this tale will be sung by the most hated of bards.

Finally back home we sat down and relaxed,
only to hear that we were still to get waxed.

She silently sat down, relaxed and started to blur,
told me to repeat and then accept what was to occur.

A blue shining light surrounded us both that night,
when the guards blasted in it was quite a sight.

Then the light turned sapphire, they had to turn away.
As all shifted to bright white, they fell down to pray.

Before long the rays dissipated and all was clear,
they looked up bewildered and in noticeable fear.



We ourselves were flung far far aloft,
up and away through clouds so very soft.

We left the world and looked anxiously ahead
to the place where our kids were sleeping tightly in their bed.

When we passed the green moon familiarity struck,
how we had longed when on earth we were stuck.

The last final distance between the trees and our stead,
took just a second, our magic was emotionally sped.

There in our landscape so pristine and so old,
lay our true essence and our future untold.

The kids woke and hugged us til the cup overflowed,
hearts melted to puddles and time was effortlessly slowed.

Nothing but this was important no more,
learning we already knew how to soar.

The Workings of a Day

He ran down the pipe and felt free. The rigorous engineering types he added were the right ones. He was sure his pet cricket would be proud of him and when he got home he would tell the whole story in detail.

At the end of the pipe he dove all the way down to the ocean surface some five hundred feet below.
The splash was intense and liberating, the fish welcomed him into their world and treated him to tea and biscuits. The tea was hard to drink as it was diluted with the ocean water as soon as it was poured. It was also difficult to pour it as the teas colour was hard to tell from the water the farther it poured from the flower-painted tea pot. In any case everyone was happy and the fika was a success.

He dove further down to the bottom a league below and fetched the lost rusty nut.
It had become a reef and he had to pick up rent from the inhabitants before going up with the nut to the surface for air. The reef had a big shock as it exited the water and jumped up and fled faster than love down into the depths again. Shining brightly the nut laughed and nodded to him with a sigh. It was time. The sponge remembered where his run had ended with a dive out of the pipe and entered the same way again.

As the surface of the pipe was quite steadfast and rough to the touch, he could easily assail the pipe all the way up to the pumping station. He was greeted by a relieved pumping station, oil and ocean water all over. The station was a tad embarrassed, it usually made its nature deposits during night time and without bystanders. The sponge, which was green, pushed the pipe back onto the pumping station again and fastened the metal nut with his nose. The effort was easy but smelled of success. He hated success, it was never lubricated.

The station hugged the green sponge and filled it with tears, calling his days work a failure, which gladdened the sponge to the edge of fainting. In the last second he pressed out a feeling, removing some of the excess water and lifting his spirits enough to soar out of the station and back into the dreamworld where he belonged. The last thing he remembered was the tug boat and the bath brush, the bubbles had already left his memory a mile ago. Times changed and he flexed his pecs and went to sleep.

The next day his pumping muscles embarrassed the pumping station and they were friends no more.
It was a sad day for the news crew, no lies could be told, the truth had come out. If you were not a sponge or a station nothing could be done. And there it was, the love that had been was once more and the world revolved and left for the void. Arriving back home his mother Saturn scolded him and asked him sternly where he had been. "I was only out playing, Ma!" he pleaded innocently.
"Oh well" his mother said. "Off to wash your hands now, supper is ready. Wake your father on the way to the kitchen, will you?."

His father had fallen asleep on the couch with a paper in his lap. He gave his father the moon, which always made him stir and wake. "Earth, my boy, did you have fun outside? Tell me all about it, dad wants to hear every detail."

He told the story of how he had saved the pumping station and had tea with the fished of the reef. He filled in the blanks in between. It took quite a while to tell and his father listened intently all the way though. When it was done his father smiled and said:
"Now that's an adventure to be proud of, I wish I would have been out there with you and had that much fun like you."
"What do you say, do you wanna go out again after we've eaten and find another adventure?" his father asked with a glimmer in his eyes.

"Yay!" a young buzzing Earth cheered at the top of his lungs.
His mother looked at them both, shook her head and smiled incredulously.