THE PRINCE WHO ALWAYS LAUGHED

In the gay nursery

By the toy room cupboard

Where toys and furniture

Turned alive at night

The teddy bear grinned

And the rocking horse shinned

But in one special box

See through with naked transparent gauze

And blue ribbons that curled and twirled

Lived a little prince who always laughed

He laughed giddy headed

At the sunflower doll

Who always turned her head to the sun

The sun was a huge

Plastic ball

Seemed to be so golden and yellow

Till she blushed a pink rouge

O’ But when she wilted

And shied good grace

At the little prince inside the naked transparent gauze

With blue ribbons that curled and twirled

He laughed away at the golden princess doll

For the sunflowers around her head

Were only made of plastic

O’ laughed he and laughed so piteously

For the tables were of compressed wood

The chairs only teak and rose wood

But whispered, moaned and creaked

 “He is queer, so weird, so weird”

“So queer and weird”

And the scarecrow by the garden

Full of sawdust

His poor brains indeed were of coir!

Made the garden goblins cough and chortle

“Ahem, Ahem”

“Smirk Smirrk!”

For the black birds weren’t afraid a bit

Of the funny scarecrow

Why he was made only of a patchwork

Quilt

His ragged shirt and ruffled sleeves

Old pants and shoes of withered grease

The prince laughed and laughed

 The scarecrow

Yet did his very best to scare the rooks

In the garden so pretty

With solid gleaming rocks

And pebbles of shimmery sheen

It just tickled the prince in the naked transparent gauze

With blue ribbons that curled and twirled

Even more when the butterflies

Sipped the honey pistils and the rookies

Plucked off the sweet blue berries

Bit the turnips and ripe tomatoes

Whilst snarled the ferocious dogs

Who couldn’t find a place to bury their splendid bones

Thus bury the hatchet!

Wasn’t that too funny!

Now the prince who always laughed

Caught hold one day of the pudgy clown

In the very act

Who thought he could not Rosen his cheeks

With princess Sunflower’s gloss

It made it look like war paint

As a violin chords, a bow with Rosin is improved

His face black as tar

Burnt indeed by the blare

Of the golden ball

For he thought the ball was just like fiery sun

And gave him a horrid tan

So would powder with dust

What he thought to be Talcum, Yardley, Cuticura or Ponds

As he improvised his lines

“To hell with it…..To hell with it!” all the time

Now the prince laughed at him just for fun

To see him cry instead

With burnt coal skin

Smeared with Talcum and Yardley dust

And puny patches of rose red

The prince who always laughed

Laughed so much one day

He laughed when the sunflower maiden

Lost her shoe and her comb for her hair

She found it at last in the corner

And the comb it was in a duffel bag

Filled with funny odds and ends

A spare tooth brush, a rickety old snake

That made a silent hiss “Sssssss.. Better beware!

Better beware!”

And a watch without a dial only a funny face

Ticked without numbers

“Tick Tick Tack Tic Tack Tick

A stitch in time saves nine

Ricketty Rick

Rickety

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Rack”

At last the shoe

When she put it on her feet

And fastened it with chords

As a ballerina does

For the prince who loved to tease

Hid the other one from her sight

And when she took her comb

She spied in the duffel bag

She saw a cockroach so big, glossy and black

She reeled backwards in fear

And her eyes moved round and round

Like an Indian Kathakali Dancer!

That the prince had kept to scare her

Poor little thing she dropped it down

As if all butterfingers!

It was a funny toy

Made of shell and conker

And its whiskers were of thread

Who wheedled it with bare hands

With acrylic brown and black paints

Only the prince who laughed

To pieces and bits he thought he could forever

No more Alas!

When the princess Sunflower fainted

And fell

The prince he stooped to pick her up

But the goblin hid her veil

The scarecrow her bridal gown

The chairs were hard as nut

And the tables refused to budge

The spare toothbrush grew fingernails

Like hare’s bristles!

The teddy bear growled

The rocking horse scowled

The ferocious dogs snarled, yelped and barked

And the pudgy clown with puny rouge took the ball

The golden sun

Hit him in the eye

The Prince was indeed ashamed

What he had done!

And thought the golden girl

Lay dead

So he removed her other shoe

And put it on her fast

And fastened them with toggles

Like a Ballerina doll

This they did to teach him a lesson good

Till he promised he would laugh

Again

Only if he married

The golden girl of sunflowers

 The Prince at last he laughed

But for a good reason

The golden girl her crown

Were replaced with petals of sunny sunflowers

With sunflowers he feasted his eye

Putting them on one by one

For the ball the golden sun

Danced up and down

The sunny jig and lively fox trot

While the ferocious dogs timidly hid their huge dinner bones again

And the scarecrow scared the crows again

The tables and chairs moved up and down

And whispered in glee “They make a pair, a matchless match”

“They make a pair”

The pudgy clown with puny rouge danced jolly good

And improvised lines

“Better or for worse! For better or worse

To heaven with it! To heaven with it!”

With his charcoal tar and smudge on cheeks

Smeared with Talcum and Yardley powder

No more did he frown

The solid gleaming rocks

And the pebbles of shimmery sheen

Came to life in the garden that dwalled

The snakes hissed and rattled

“Sssssss.. Better beware! Better beware!”

The watch ticked, tocked and warbled

“Tick Tick Tack Tic Tack Tick

A stitch in time saves nine

Ricketty Rick

Ricketty Rack”

The teddy bear smiled

And the rocking horse shinned up to and fro

The ferocious dogs whimpered a mellow yelp

And wagged two tails along

Butterflies frolicked and fluttered

Daintily in the blue skies

White rabbit’s hopped, brown busy squirrels munched nuts

 True Tree House sparrows chirped

And the spare toothbrush with hare’s bristles

Like finger nails moved up the grassy knolls

A breathless gait

Up the high wall hedge!

Through the window panes

Of the gay toy room shed

The golden girl he married!