This week, Chuck's email is late... or it's not arrived. Either way, I thought to go back to last week's choices and pick another title.
enjoy.
Late, late at night, is the time –
Usually after midnight –
When everyone is fast, fast asleep,
Is when the laughing wakes, wakes me up,
And I go, go to the window and look outside.
Into the darkness of the night, night, I see
The lights of the garden where there were
none
Before.
Curiosity gets the better of me, me
And I tip-toe past down the hallway in my
slippers,
Past my parents’ door, down, down the
stairs,
Out to the back garden where the laughing,
laughing
Is louder, louder and sweeter, sweeter
Than before.
Little, little hands pull me into their games,
Their dances, dances, and twinkling music,
And it’s fun for hours, hours on end!
Then, I wake up and I’m back, back in bed
and
Mum is shaking me awake, asking why my
slippers
Are wet.
For a long time after that first, first
night,
I go and see my friends in the garden,
Where the laughing lights are every night,
night
After midnight when everyone is asleep,
And their music starts, and they begin to laugh
out
At me to come downstairs,
To join them.
One morning, I brush, brush my hair to find
my ears
Aren’t the same, same as they used to be.
They are long, long and pointed!
Quickly, I hide, hide them with my hair as
Mum comes
Into my room, room asking if I’m ready for
school;
Like nothing is wrong.
Little, little things like this keep showing
up,
And I keep, keep going out to the laughing
lights
Late, late at night to dance, dance with
them all
In the garden, in the rings of lights until
dawn,
Until I go, go back to bed, keeping my
secret
Like they asked me to.
Then one night, I wake up and there’s no, no
more
Laughing or lights from the garden.
I look, look out of my bedroom window and
find
Nothing but darkness in the garden, garden.
Running down, down to where my friends were,
I look, look for them!
“They are gone, gone.” Mum’s voice says
behind me.
I turn crying as they don’t understand how
nice, nice they were.
“Dad, mowed the lawn today and they went
away.” She took my
Hand, hand and took me inside back to my
bedroom,
She tucked me into bed, and left on my night
light.
I cried myself to sleep.
Summer came, came and I was woken again by
laughter
After midnight and I rushed to the window to
see them all
There waiting for me.
I ran down, down to them and they greeted me
happily.
My parents were behind me as the fairies of
the garden
Took me away, away and let me live, live
with them.
Just as they, they were going to let me do
Before.
This time, they didn’t give my parents a
choice, choice
This time, the lights wouldn’t return,
And I knew, knew they’d let me stay with
them
To dance, dance,
To sing, sing,
To be a young, young child
Always.
