The Fairy Path

Inside a green glove of a twisty lane

Of a beautiful Fairy Path

Filled with fairy lights of morning stars

Even those twilight twinkling ones

Of tall leafy boughs that shook in the breeze

Amongst the fairies of moppets and puppets

Tender leaves and baby saplings

That a puppet masteur deftly played

With his thumbs, elbows, toes and knee sockets

And their leaves and sprockets

The sodden moppets and puppets

Of the Puppet Theatre

Fairy Circus pandemonium

The balcony seat

They played their parts so well

And rehearsed several long skits

In different tongues and languages

Of tweets, twitters, playful jabbernowls and growls

Full of squirrels, sparrows, rabbits

Chipmunks, lizards, monkeys, crows and snakes

Of course bar headed geese, hens, cocks

 Cassowaries and griffin vultures

Even bears, lions, giraffes and camels

Of the busy fairy faith of creatures

The birds, animals, fishes, fairy folk

Flowers that peeped by every nook and cranny

Its grassy hedges, knolls and mounds

Fit to the puppet master’s girth

Around his full waist and length of

The twisty lanes of the fairy forest

 

The fairy path the Master Almighty

Designed with love and care

And took to grooming each and every

Moppets and puppets each day

With fresh fruits and waters of his flooding

Rivers and valleys

If only you could count his stars

That illuminated the stage

As the curtains fell at twilight

After dusk

And the moon displayed the Cheshire puss grin

Faultlessly as he graced without an effort

A hundred million cutlass teeth

Of the molars and crater filled surfaces

That shined almost touching the hems

Of the fairy street

 

Now one day as the Puppet Master Almighty

Played with his fancy fairy street

Puppets and moppets

Came by another lost puppet master Felix

Who lost all faith in his mastery

And showmanship of entertaining his audience

He lived on this beautiful fairy path

In a haunted secret mysterious cottage

No one knew about

His puppets and moppets

Made with ceramic heads

And bodies of silken garments

That came alive like Pinnochio

Danced and swayed

One more beautiful than the other

He so lustrously painted with his bare

Fingers with threadbare brushes and strokes

Of acrylic, water colours and oil paints

Wished now only to perform for himself

Instead of his racy neighbours

Who lived along the quaint Hamlet

Of the busy fairy forest

 

Whilst the Almighty and puppet masters

Of the fairy forest race

Each looked lovingly at their skilful creations

The birds, bees, insects, animals

Fairy folk and the porcelain puppets

Of cloth and clay

Carved upon thumbs, elbows

Toes and knee pads

Like Lilliputians of a fairy dream

A little boy ventured to dance

Reciting nursery rhymes, limericks and poetry

Skilled like both puppet masters

This he showcased skilfully on his body

Whist the puppet master Felix in the secret

House at the edge of the fairy forest

Who lived alone

Shunned anybody from seeing his talent

Because he brooded the ugly face

Of the human race

 

However seeing through a crack in his

Window pane

This poor urchin boy

With knee puppets and those on his thumbs

Elbows and toes

Wished very much to earn a few pennies

Then knocking rat-a-tat-a-tat

He wished that someone would welcome him

With a warm bowl of soup

Or maybe a sandwich of bread and ham

And a mug of hot piping cocoa and milk

 But in the meantime so curious was he

To see what took place inside the mystery house

Of the puppet master Felix

He peeped inside and shocked his blooming wits

What he happily saw......

The curtains were pulled back

Of a strange doll marchioness and marquess house

With fairy lights that flickered like baubles

Inside

And there were heroes and heroines on the stage

Pulled deftly with invisible strings

By the old puppet master Felix

As he spoke like a ventriloquist

Mimicking all the fairy actors

Of porcelain, cloth and clay

A beautiful panjandrum

Skit or Judy and Punch show

Fanciful fairy antics

Of so delightful comic and satire

One would name Tragicomedy

The puppets one by one spoke in a strange

Fairy Language

A discourse only the Almighty Puppet Master

Of Heaven would understand

As he had mastered his trade

Princess- “I am tired of faking smiles

As a heroine of a play, my audience

Only snicker and snubs what truly I display

Virtues of tolerance and patience

Have no meaning today

Everyone who lives here blames

Another for their misfortunes and failures

Who would truly understand the meaning

Of being a puppet and not a puppet on a string”

Prince- “I agree with you my highness

And not by high handedness or hardness of heart

Let’s punch and hit our heads

With clobber and battens instead

To mimicry what we’re supposed

To expect

A group of rowdy laughing fool mongers

And love apples flung at us

Instead of a stage of roses and olive wreaths”

And they beat one another

Brow beat instead

With fun and battens

Clobbers and maces of jokes and pun

Comedy and satire

Named Tragicomedy in jest!

 

The poor urchin boy laughed so much

His belly shook from side to side

Even if he didn’t understand

Why they did what they did

And bothered by the laughing spell

The poor old puppet master Felix

Of the mysterious house

Opened wide his cracked window panes

To see an urchin poorly as ragged as could be

With torn short breeches

And puppets and moppets drawn

Skilfully on his thumbs and knee pads

Elbows and toes

He was truly taken aback

And watched the little boy laugh happily

As if he thoroughly enjoyed the spate

Of the events that he observed

Through the corner of the crack

In his window panes

 

Then calling the sweet boy a little

Ragged Pupputianskin

He invited him into his mysterious cosy hearth

And fed the hungry boy till he was full

And his belly creaked

Instead of butterflies flying desperately

Then the boy he christened Pupputianskin

With ten puppets and moppets

On his ten thumbs, ten toes

Knee pads and elbows

Asked the poor old puppet master Felix

Why he did soliloquy all alone

Inside this mysterious, lonely cottage

Of the fairy path 

 

The down trodden and beat puppet master

Felix looking sad and solemn

Explained to Pupputianskin

“In this beautiful fairy path

All the puppet masters were very selfish

So filled with one sided ambition

To be rats of a rat race competition

Neither rejoiced nor partook in the success

Of somebody else

They always raced ahead of me

And when it was my turn

Good grace I hardly earned a penny

Luckily I inherited my Uncle George’s vast fortune

So I decided to live alone

In his beautiful house

By the beautiful fairy path

And entertain instead of people

Me, my fairy moppets and fairy poppets

Of fairy dreams

That I worked so hard

To assemble and name my occupation

Of Fairy Puppet Tradition

In its Fairy Language”

 

As if the Puppet Master of the skies

Shed tears for Pupputianskin and Puppet Master Felix

Who really never got what they truly deserved

Sad Business as one says

Pupputianskin, luckily however never did understand

The meaning of competition

He only did so under lamplights

And cobbled lanes

By the moonlight and twinkle of starry diamonds

Entertaining spectators

If ever they gave him a lucky penny

To stash away into his little fairy piggy bank

He always carried one with him every day

And one day decided to break it

To give the only person who deserved it

His good mother of the fairy lane

 

The Master Almighty of the fairy tree

And fairy street

Smiled from the heavens

And bestowed upon them

His countless blessings

As he played expertly with their hearts

And invisible puppet strings

His Evergreen talents!

And destined them to cross paths called Destiny

His puppet masters were happy

Now thick as thieves and good buddies

They marvelled at each another’s talents

And decided they had to make a plan

Of puppet play

To attract an audience even in this unfair lamarkey

Of an ungodly rat race

They set up a stage just outside

The narrow lane

That bifurcated into an open dwelling of people

In the busy hamlet

And set a signboard

“TALENTED PUPPUTIANSKIN

AND PUPPET MASTER FELIX

PERFORM PUNCH AND JUDY SHOW

FOR ALL HOODLUMS AND SPECTATORS

WHO LOVE SATIRE AND LIMERICK

TRAGICOMEDY”

A ticket cost about a hundred and fifty five

Rupees for each of the bright people

Of the fairy street

 

All noticed the signboard

And marvelled the old puppet master Felix

Had come alive again

The hoi polloi rushed to watch him along

With his new buddy Pupputianskin

The skit and soul show they put

Up for the busy crowds

Won hands down

The stage of Punch and Judy Show

Called Tragicomedy

With punch lines and beatings

Ventriloquism and invisible strings

 Porcelain dolls, paints

On clay, knees, fingers, elbows, toes

Rich Marquisette cloth, satin

Georgette and taffeta

And colourful Puppet Play figurines

A success Joint Venture!

They mastered the art of winning hearts

Not one but thousands of

Applause and claps

Thundered through the fairy path once again

 

The razzle-dazzle of the day had

Soon come to an abrupt end

Too soon

The people sighed and

Wished it would never ever end

They had earned ten thousand quid

In just a seating to be marvelled

Their effort and genuiness of their ingenious hard work

Paid off to every earned scent, dime or farthing

Now counting and distributing

The many efforts of their thumbs

And fingers they amassed pulled by invisible

Strings.... puppets and moppets on

Knees, elbows, thumbs, toes and fingers

Whilst the Mastermind Puppet master Almighty

Deftly arranged in skies, earth and heavens

With his masterful green thumb

The story of the fairy path

And its happy spectators!

Inside his green gloves

Of a twisty lane!

The beautiful fairy path

 

If ever you visit

The strange green glove

That the Almighty Puppet Master

Dons his gauntlets

Of the Fairy Path

The birds, animals

Fishes, flowers and fairy folks

Will remind you that

As deftly he pulls his puppet play masters

Expertly toyed on invisible strings

Our hearts on sleeves open out to the song

Of the free spirit of his gushing

Streams and mountains

As we play our heroic parts as puppets

And Pupputianskins

Even his skilled Puppet Masters

Each and every one

‘IF YOU COULD COUNT THE NUMBER

OF STARS IN HEAVENS’

And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”

(Gen 15:5 God to Abraham)