When the Birdie Broke the Bell

"Oh, dear birdie, now why did you break the bell?"

asked the ground in its mourning

Having seen the gold bell shattered,

By where the birds went to eat.

And the birdie, all blue in feather

chirped a merry way

and twittered in merry saying

"Because the bell stole my calling

and made the morning high pitched and growing

in monotone and soaring rings

of its clear voice on brass metal

rendering my chirp an extravagant thing."

"Oh, how terrible!"

chimed the wind in mourning

For the bell was a good friend of his.

"Dear birdie, how awful, how crude

for you to steal the bell away."

And to this the birdie sang his song

and covered his ears up

and chirp and chirp he did do

until the blew a southern way.

"Made the wind gone far, you did,"

grunted the green ground.

"Ah, yes I have," said the birdie all smirking

in the only way beaked birds can do

"I can made the wind fly away!"

hailed the birdie as he fluttered.

"But you cannot move me," replied the ground

very still like grounds will be.

"I suppose that's true,"

said the birdie as he fluttered.

"But I can indeed poke you!"

he cried as he ripped a worm from the ground's opening.

"Oh that does sting slightly! But I am use to it, you see,"

said in the ground

"Why did you break the bell?"

asked the worm on which the birdie gulped

"Oh, I've already explained that story!"

exclaimed the saddened birdie

who would not recount his tale again

And he did not, you see

before he swallowed the worm.

"So cruel you are," sighed the low ground

"So cruel I am," cheered the blue birdie

"What of cruelty?" asked the birdie incredulously.

"Why not be cruel?" he pondered again

And the ground did shrug a little

in the only way the ground can shake

And from this shake, uprooted the trees from the earth, and houses from their make.

To this the birdie fluttered high in fear

"Oh, you monster!" he exclaimed

And in response the ground sighed,

and asked what of cruelty to bells

and green trees and human things

could the ground possibly ache?