In your travels, should you find
some oddball children, pay no mind.
But if you do, and you have learned
that they love candy recently turned,
it behooves you to flee at once.
And don’t come back
that way for months.
For you have wandered
to a land forgotten,
where the children like
their candy rotten.
And this might not sound so terribly bad,
perhaps only slightly, or only a tad.
But I assure you, once I’ve filled you in,
you too will avoid these rotten children!

Avoid like the plague or like measles or beets.
Avoid them like odd-colored stains on your sheets.
Avoid them like murder and dandruff and stink.
Avoid them like things moving under the sink.
For this is the behavior I would strongly advise
unless you’d like a sandwich of mustard and lies.
You think I’m kidding? You think this is a joke?
Brother, I’m as serious as a mouthful of New Coke!

Their loyalty’s shifty, their morals are loose.
They’d eat the heart out of a chocolate moose.
Their bedtime is no time their naptime is “GO!” time,
And they have never once heard of “The Answer Is No!” time.
They wipe their hands everywhere and belch like fat chickens
and after they’re done, the buffet is slim pickins.
They’ll throw a wild tantrum just to pass an afternoon
and then hide your car keys on the back of the moon.
They’re nasty, dastardly, pompous and rude.
Oh, did I mention they’re sick of Thai food?

Their rotten teeth are made to slide
out moldy, curdled, rotten lies.
They insist its gospel, but otherwise
is seen deep within their rotten black eyes.
They cheat at hopscotch, they cheat at darts,
they have no love for culture or arts.
They’re dirty, nasty, selfish and mean.
They’d sell their own mothers for a black jelly bean.
They don’t do lemonade stands and they don’t mow lawns.
They’ll ransack your rec room for something to pawn.
They’ll name a dog kitty and they’ll name a cat Rover
and they’ll watch Disney videos over and over
until you scream “That’s it! Enough! I am quitting!
This is the last time I agree to babysitting!”



Toudle-Lou & Toudle-Lee
They’d been through hobbies, like sleeping in lobbies, and making underwear out of cats. They’d sat in a urinal while folding the Journal into intricate stock-market hats.

Jojo the Imp
In the Valley of Sali, beneath a beautiful bridge, lived an Imp named Jojo who dreamed of one day being a construction worker.

The Hat Thief
There once was a bat who lived in a hat in a crevice overlooking the sea. How’d the hat get there? Why should you care? I should care, it belonged to me.

The Golden Potion
Once upon a time, or so goes the line, I heard tell a notion of a gold magic potion. Its power mysterious, a bouquet quite delirious, it filled all who drink with the charm of a king, the strength of ten oxen for lifting or boxing.