Grandpa’s stories were the best.
Whenever we were sent to dream:
“Protest! Protest! Tell us the rest!
We have to hear it! We must know!
Who went to spirit? Where’d the Witcher go?”

Then he’d sternly say, with a wink and a grin:
“Stories never end, just the telling of them.
Now get yourself to bed and let them come again.”

His heroes and villains weren’t done by half.
They’d get hurt but still love and laugh.
Maybe he was them.
Maybe he lived it.
Danced with the joyful fools.
Broke the Borrowed Rules.
Splashed in the moonbow pools.
Maybe that’s how he knew.

(Parts I and II and III and IV and V)

A madman land can only stand
By pain and greed and hate.
Fey threw them off and freed her band
Of furball foes as if she’d planned
To find an endless fight.

Grief came home but the fallen never rose,
Some things that go are gone.
They built monuments in rows so those
Deeds might teach and keep heroes from more woes,
But the forgetting’s never done.

War came for Fey and for them all,
Lighting the way with the darkest glimmer.
The last one standing’s just the last to fall,
With war the only winner.

I’m ugly.

My nose is inside out
And something of a spider spout.

I grow grass instead of hair.
My eye’s as round as a square.

I’m missing half my belly.
My knees are oddly smelly.

I’ve a pimple that smokily smolders,
Third, fourth and fifth extra shoulders.

I have a rather scaly complexion
And feet that can’t seem to pick a direction.

I like ugly.

Illustrated by Richard

(Parts I and II and III and IV)

As Fey faced war there stirred in her
A strength that comes with calm.
While fear and fury unmeasured and pure
Stormed the field a cutting cure occurred –
All might fall to shame.

Fey flew into that flaming crown,
Burning gold to dust.
She met the curse and struck it down,
Losing herself but gaining ground
Against the warring host.

War came for Fey and for them all,
Lighting the way with the darkest glimmer.
The last one standing’s just the last to fall,
With war the only winner.

My TV turned me on.
I sat down on the floor.
It watched me sit and stare
And found me quite a bore.

It poked me in the eye.
It twisted both my ears.
It kicked me in the rear
And ran me out of here.

We opened up the day
Racing berry crickets
Down the very lost way
To the whistling thickets.

We made a hopscotch bread
And took it to high tea
With the trees who love so
Much my TV and me.

We argued on all the
Best ways to steal a creek
Then tried some out but could
Barely catch a weak leak.

We fired up the fire bugs
With the last sunlight thread
And went hunting with them
For a well slept in bed.

My TV tucked me in.
It said, “Sweet dreams, my friend.”
It gave a goodnight kiss
Then turned me off again.

Drawn by Bob

(Part I and Part II and Part III)

Rats ran alongside searching spears,
Mice taught arrows to fly.
Well-armored cats carried small creatures’ fears,
Dive-bombing bats were spurred blurs of shears,
Fey fought with tears in her eyes.

The cursed crown called all to conquer,
Ending better quests.
Violent victims rose and crashed together,
Steady stealing pieces of each other
Till all that’s left were ghosts.

War came for Fey and for them all,
Lighting the way with the darkest glimmer.
The last one standing’s just the last to fall,
With war the only winner.

Maybe I could if given a chance.
Maybe with might and a little perchance
I’d beat Fate to the draw and drop her in the muck.
Say what you want, there’s no planning for Luck.

It’s plausible, presumable,
And all around presumtable,
That a little assuming can lead to perhaps,
So why not imagine my way to mayhaps?

Somehow is as likely as not,
So count on random to win me the lot.
Maybe just may be more than it seems.
Maybe the real world will fall to my dreams.

That almost seems right.
Almost but not quite.

(Part I and Part II)

Fourteen years before this war betrayed
For not and nothing,
Fey’s town near drowned in a cockroach raid,
A seething insect sea that preyed
On any but the strong.

But roving rats heard cries and came,
Heroes are never far.
They sent every roach away in shame,
Grateful Fey swore an oath that gave them claim
(Though she was but five) to her.

War came for Fey and for them all,
Lighting the way with the darkest glimmer.
The last one standing’s just the last to fall,
With war the only winner.

Drawn by Thora

My favorite word is no.
It’s the most useful of the lot.
“Won’t you share your toys?” “No.”
“Help your brother. Clean that spot.
Careful with that!” “No. No. And no.”
“Would you please bathe!?” “OK. – Not!”
Yes just seems wrong, no?
“Want some of these cookies I bought?”

Sometimes you even have to say no to no.

(Here is Part I)

Their ending began when greed took hold,
Once in it won’t slip off.
A crown was made of cold flame and cruel gold,
But who would rule?  Let their souls be sold
For the price of never enough.

Their greed it grew as greed will do,
They piled hurt on hurts.
The rats called Fey and she came true,
Giving her a most terrible view
As hate howled loud in hearts.

War came for Fey and for them all,
Lighting the way with the darkest glimmer.
The last one standing’s just the last to fall,
With war the only winner.