The oven engine of this ship
Held hash and heavens in its grip;
This oven was a large orange peel
Baked to gold and stony steel
And on its own transforming trip.
Lark was a man of pots and pans,
He found no place for plots and plans;
His kitchen filled him up with love
So he filled it up with grub
And they filled bellies of all lands.
Life is raw and full of awe,
An oven’s full of care,
Share and share is kitchen law
By both land and air.
Drawn by EBN.
(Read Part I here.)
Lark came and gave away
All the eats he’d baked that day;
The happy eaters gave that favor
Back by sharing wild flavor,
Soon to be most scrumptiously gourmet.
They filled that muffin tent with goods
Unknown in other neighborhoods;
Pickled honey, ginger cheese,
Caramel from the Quercus trees
And sweet and spicy spuds.
Life is raw and full of awe,
An oven’s full of care,
Share and share is kitchen law
By both land and air.
He baked his way into the sky
By cookie, cake and pie;
His muffin tent became sky boat
With oven heat enough to float
A kitchen full of rye.
That lemon basil muffin went
With the wind and welcome scent
Until Lark’s baking day was done,
Towns formed for feasts of pine nut buns,
Awaiting the descending tent.
Life is raw and full of awe,
An oven’s full of care,
Share and share is kitchen law
By both land and air.
Drawn by Nocturne whose art can be found here.
Along with the new book, I also put together some clothing designs. These include fox t-shirts, Beasts Without Borders hoodies and a Life, Magic, Mischief t-shirt. All available on Amazon.
This is my new book about things coming to an end. If you’re looking for children’s books for Christmas gifts or other reasons I might recommend my book Beasts Without Borders. If you want some poems I’d recommend Life, Magic, Mischief: Volume 2. If you have a younger reader I’d likely point to my first book Perfect Nonsense, which is full of nonsense limericks and excellent illustrations. I’m also happy to recommend a lot of books not written by me (Calvin and Hobbes at the top of the list). The End is short, simple and has no story besides things ending and what comes from that. I hope you enjoy.
It’s not about finding a way, no!
It’s about finding, let’s go!
“Excuse me, Sir!
The world would have a word!”
I said, “Such a shame! I don’t appear to be here.
If I see me I’ll whisper in my little ear –
‘You’ve clearly crossed the fantod frontier,
Fly for the stars and disappear!'”
“Sir! You’ll respect this fine world!
Or have you not heard?”
“That it’s time I turn bird?
Please, have all my words!”
“I think perhaps we should restart,
Did you not know we have your heart?”
“But not my wings!
And loss of a heart will always sting
But I have many more to bring
With me to beat for other kings.”
“Silly Sir!
You’ve gone absurd!”
“And I’ll keep going on, you know!
Leaving hearts and bits of soul
Wherever they might give and grow.
I’m out of words and I must go.”
Kasink could not fly.
He dreamt of wind and clouds and sky
But it would be a laughing lie
To say he ever got as high
As a dreary sigh.
Kasink made a plan.
He had a thought turn to demand,
“Fly” was free, bug and command,
He’d have all three and drop the land
For something far more grand.
Kasink set a snare.
He captured countless flies with care,
Tied each one to one of his hairs
And at long last he was prepared –
He would know the air.
Kasink flew on up!
This was his life’s one great triumph!
Controlling flies had him quite stumped,
They flew him in a buzzing clump
Straight to the closest dump.
Illustration by Anni whose art can be found at @annifduluth.
Sometimes I go missing
And don’t know where I’ve gone.
I’m me without myself,
Some sort of sunless dawn.
Where I go I hope to never know
But will go and go and go.
Every time I go me free
I come back with more of me.
Have you ever known a curse?
Some are end-all, others worse.
Some slide a silly sort of sideways,
Passing odd logic laws by ways
Otherwise unknown.
Could be Sense takes out a loan.
From the day he was born
Lur was cursed to grow horns.
But he didn’t go goat,
Nor bull, ram or jackalope.
Off the top of his head he grew
Bugles, kurudutus and tubas too!
Some tiny, making a sound astoundingly whiny.
Others big as a car and twice as shiny.
Do you know what he did,
That slick little kid?
Lur took his curse and turned a profit!
He made a happy living off it!
Sometimes success cannot be stopped.
He opened up a music shop.
He learned to grow horns to request.
His toot-toot-tootlers were the best!
How his curse came is another tale.
Lur’s parents knew well how to fail.
Life, Magic, Mischief _______ with Kyle Mosher 