Devon Volkel's Blog, page 55
November 21, 2014
"R. Kelly"
- "The depth of your struggle can determine the height of your success."
November 16, 2014
Love cold winter nights
Love cold winter nights
October 25, 2014
October 20, 2014
My Grandma's Story, The Three Little Monkeys
The Three Little Monkeys
By
Frances M. Duggan
Jackie and Jimmy and Little Joe
lived on the island of Kokopo.
A little green island on royal blue seas
with high chocolate mountains and lollypop trees
and you never saw stranger monkeys than these.
Their home was a hut made of long licorice sticks
all plastered together with gingerbread mix.
It stood by the banks of a Soda-pop Brook
in whose bubbling waters the three monkeys took
their Saturday baths in a tree-shaded nook.
And they filled up their days as young monkeys will
by picking the crackers that grew on the hill
on cocoanut bushes or peppermint vines
or they followed a circular trail as it twines
down under the mountain to jelly-bean mines.
Or they swam back and forth in the orange-juice pool
for the three monkeys never would go to school
and there was a school on Kokopo
made of spinach greens in the amber glow
of the CodLiverOilRiver’s flow.
But Jackie and Jimmy and Little Joe
to that side of the mountain would never go
for they knew that the schoolmaster, Rajah Rem,
the ugliest ape-man was waiting for them
with a long ruler made of an apple pie stem.
One day Little Joe said to Jackie and Jim
"I say there, fellows, let’s see who can swim,
right out of the brook and into the sea,
and round the whole island as fast as can be,
and do it the quickest, I’ll bet ‘twil be me!”
So Jackie and Jim, who were typical monks
ran into the hut for their swimming trunks
and when they were ready, the three waded in
to the Soda-pop Brook for the race to begin,
and they swam to the sea, though they knew ‘twas a sin.
Sometimes it was Jimmy and other times Jack,
left the two other monkeys behind in his track
and sometimes Little Joe swam along like a fish
and cut the blue waves with a slush and a swish
and swam just as fast as a monkey could wish.
Around where the sea breaks on MountCurrant-Gem
In the MedicineCaves waited old Rajah Rem
with his face full of snickers and devilish leers
that began near his nose and curled back to his ears
while he waited, he practiced his terrible jeers.
The first time he bellowed, the echo returned
and down in the wells the medicine churned
but as he grew better, and louder he howled
the pools through the cave spouted upward and growled
and splashed back again when the schoolmaster scowled.
Away down blow in the blue and white waves,
where the sea passes by the dark MedicineCaves
the three little monkeys were happy and gay
as they swam right along in their merriest way
never knowing that trouble would snatch them that day.
For old Rajah Rem reached the peak of his art
and with the mightiest roar he was out like a dart
and over the cliff and swimming along
behind the three monkeys who knew it was wrong
to leave the green grove where good monkeys belong.
And they shook when they heard the schoolmaster’s loud roar
and Jackie and Jimmy made straight for the shore.
They climbed up the bank and following them
hastened poor Little Joe and old Rajah Rem
and they ran for the forests of Mount Currant-Gem
They ran like little deer ‘round the lollypop trees
and swung on the vines with the greatest of ease
down steep Taffy Hill they skidded and slid
and behind Gum Drop Boulder a short while they hid
but old Rajah Rem did each thing that they did.
At last Jimmy said, “I will fix him, you’ll see.”
And he climbed to the top of a Butterscotch tree.
He stretched on a limb without flurries or fears
and said to the two, “When the old ape appears,
I will reach through the boughs and pull off his ears.”
Away like two arrows flew Jackie and Joe
and there Jimmy waited, and watched out below
but the old ape was clever and swung on a vine
high up in the trees and with never a sign
he dropped on poor Jimmy and bound him with twine.
"You’d pull of my ears, monkey, would you?" he said.
And the laughed that he laughed would awaken the dead.
He made Jimmy sit in the Brown-Sugar Sands
with his legs crossed before him and tied with tight bands
and he forced him to cover his ears with his hands.
The schoolmaster leered and he terribly cast
a Black Magic spell that would hold Jimmy fast
and he said, “That will hold you, bad monkey, I think.
Now I’ll go to the pool and I’ll get me a drink
then I’ll catch your companions as swift as a wink.”
Little Joe turned to Jackie and, “Jackie,” said he,
"The capture of old Rajah Rem’s up to me,
I will climb down the rocks where the marshmallows clung,
and hide in the pool where the strawberries hung.
When he stoops for a drink I will pull out his tongue.”
So brave Little Joe left Jackie alone
and down where the marshmallows clung to the stone
under the strawberry syrup he sank
and waited ‘til Rajah bent over and drank.
But the schoolmaster saw him and gave him a yank.
Up came little Joe, dripping strawberry juice
and he, too, was bound so he could not break loose.
The schoolmaster marched him in triumph so grand
to where Jimmy sat on the Brown Sugar strand
and he forced him to cover his mouth with his hand.
Then he leered once again-twice as good as the last
and he cast the Black Spell holding Little Joe fast.
"I have captured you two, now just one monk remains.
To see you lined up will be well worth my pains.
Had you come to my school, you could use those small brains.”
For a while Jackie trembled and looked all around
as if Rajah Rem would spring from the ground.
The he straightened his shoulders and threw out his chest,
and he said to himself, “I guess I’m the best-
I’ll poke Rajah’s eyes out, and rescue the rest.”
So he got a long stick and he crept down the trail,
of the Sour Patch Kids, a-swinging his tail.
And he looked to the left and he looked to the right,
and he looked in the caves that were blacker than night,
but the ugly schoolmaster was no where in sight.
Up mountains, down valleys, no place could he find him,
for the crafty schoolmaster was walking behind him!
He grabbed Jackie’s tail and by its long strands
he pulled him back down to the Brown Sugar Sands
and forced him to cover his eyes with his hands.
"Good monkeys," said he, "know ‘tis only a fool
who will play all the day when he could be in school.”
The schoolmaster’s voice dropped away down low,
"Now you’ll sit there so monkeys of all lands will know
what becomes of bad monkeys on Kokopo.”
And there to this day, on that little green isle
those three little monkeys are sitting this while
as the tropical wind shakes the lollypop trees
and Mount Currant-Gem gently slopes to the seas
and the Soda-pop Brook gurgles sweet melodies.
Frances M. Duggan
October 28th, 1939
My Grandma's Children's Story, The Three Little Monkeys
The Three Little Monkeys
By
Frances M. Duggan
Jackie and Jimmy and Little Joe
lived on the island of Kokopo.
A little green island on royal blue seas
with high chocolate mountains and lollypop trees
and you never saw stranger monkeys than these.
Their home was a hut made of long licorice sticks
all plastered together with gingerbread mix.
It stood by the banks of a Soda-pop Brook
in whose bubbling…
October 15, 2014
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September 20, 2014
Bonnie and Clyde’n it up
Bonnie and Clyde’n it up
