An alien came from Mercury
“Earthlings,” he said, “please hurry
I give you one minute
Pack your stuff in it
Nothing else for you to worry”
Poor earthlings lost their head
Helter-skelter they all fled
Hearts gripped with fear
And the future unclear
They didn’t want to end up dead
The cunning alien had a look
How easily the Earth was shook
No guns or death-ray
No knife to slay
Authority is all it took
I grabbed my daughter’s favourite book
A book about dinosaurs
She holds it every night to sleep
A book she just adores
As I flipped the very first page
Guess what did I see
The beasts therein all came to life
And jumped on top of me
They looked at me with giant eyes
I looked back with fear
I yelled and screamed like a little girl
As my demise grew near
Hearing me my girl came running
Grabbed the book from me
Instructed the giant dinosaurs
— Let the old man be
They all paid obeisance to her
Ere retreating in the book
I got myself up from the floor
With a pitiful look
Like nothing had ever happened
My daughter jumped on the bed
Fell to sleep holding that eerie book
Left me scratching my head
My English teacher taught me WORDS = SWORD
My Science teacher told me HEART = EARTH
My Geometry teacher told me TRIANGLE = INTEGRAL
My Philosophy teacher told me DEATH = HATED
My Geography teacher told me NIGER = REIGN
My Music teacher told me LISTEN = SILENT
I told them TEACHER = CHEATER
And now I cannot go home until I find one for STUDENT
Why do the clouds cry so often?
Can somebody go and stop them?
Look what they’ve done to my clothes
My clothes get wet and I get sick
From the constant tears they leak
When will they stop? Nobody knows
I need to meet a special friend
The clouds keep crying for hours on end
Even I am dripping from my nose
You naughty clouds you’ve made me cry
I’m late again despite my tries
That’s just how life goes I suppose
There were three unusual friends
Present, Past and Future Tense
They wanted to meet
On Times Square Street
To mark their eternal bromance
In a bar lay a lazy punk
Half-asleep and totally drunk
The staff would scream and shout
But he wouldn’t check-out
So they dumped him with the junk
There was once an elephant
Smaller than the smallest ant
He faced a lot of mock
So he went to a doc
For a dose of antidepressant
There’s a bully in my school
Her name’s Eleanor
Mean, fat and ugly
She’s a devil for sure
She pushes me around
Gives wounds to my skin
When I sit and cry
I can see her grin
She always takes my lunch
Dim-witted Eleanor
But from today I say
She’ll bully me no more
I have made a sandwich
Mixed with slimy bugs
Found them in my garden
Snails, beetles, ants and slugs
Jessie comes and tells me
That today is a good day
Eleanor’s not come to school
Much to my dismay
“Get off of me”
“First she drops us and then sleeps on us?”
Sara lifted herself from the floor and looked at the boxes of cornflakes lying all around her. “Are you talking?”
“Yes. Of course we are talking. Now get off of us.”
“Wow! That’s incredible. Who else can talk?”
“Everyone and everything can. You wanted someone to talk to you. Here we are. Talk all you want.”
“It doesn’t feel safe over here. Can you park me over there?” Tangy (Sara’s bicycle) said pointing to a lonely spot in the distance.
“That far?” Sara was bewildered. “In fact that is a spot where you would most likely get stolen. You are safer here.”
“Can I get what I want?” Tangy replied firmly. “You and Rose always get to do whatever you want while I always miss out on the fun. Can you at least listen to me once?”
Rose (Sara’s flower) tried to warn her but Sara was in no mood to argue. She placed Rose in the pannier and climbed the bicycle to park it in the distance. No sooner had she done so than Tangy turned towards the store’s entrance door and said, “Sara, you have been anxious and worried too much and for far too long. You have stopped enjoying life and you have not let me enjoy either. Now we will end this. Prepare for fun.”
“No, no, no” screamed Sara but it was too late. Tangy had already started his mission. “What is wrong with you? Where are we going?”
“No questions. Just enjoy.” Tangy laughed.
And Tangy, with Rose in the pannier and Sara mounted on top, burst through the store’s entrance. The security personnel ran after Sara to catch her and get her to stop. What they didn’t know is that poor Sara wanted to do the same thing. She too wanted the bicycle to stop but Tangy was possessed. Tangy wanted his adventure.
Tangy drove through all the aisles of the store and crashed into several things as the guards helplessly chased after Sara. “Are you having fun?” Tangy asked as he picked up more pace.
“I can’t hear you.” Sara cried with the wind brushing wildly against her face. “What speed are we going at?”
Tangy laughed. Rose shook his head. Sara was busy apologising to all the other customers in the store as she drove past them at full speed.
“Stop, stop!” Sara screamed. “Please stop now!”
“You really want to stop? Aren’t you having fun?” Tangy said, hardly able to contain the fun he was having.
“Yes. Please stop.” Sara pleaded.
“As you wish, my lord.” And Tangy crashed into a rack full of cornflakes boxes as their exhilarating ride came to an end. At that moment, as they were about to crash into the rack, Sara felt free and happy. She had no idea why.
Frank Solanki 