Story Reads: 14,758

In a rickety house in the depths of a wood,

Lived two little elves who couldn’t be good.

Smudge was bright green with a blue spotty nose

And Titch, he was purple with blue curly toes.

***

They teased one another with spell after spell-

Titch tumbled down an invisible well,

Smudge fell from trees that transformed into sticks

Oh! They used earthly magic for all sorts of tricks!

***

But their games turned to squabbles, then one fateful day

Titch crossed a line with a joke meant for play.

He stirred up a potion of nettles and flowers,

Of hexes and herbs and a dash of dark powers.

***

“Smudge, here’s your soup. S’getting cold, eat it quick!”

Smudge ate it all, and he soon felt quite sick.

His green skin turned yellow, he couldn’t be woken,

Titch cast every spell but his eyes wouldn’t open.

***

Titch searched for cures, looked from midnight till noon,

He trailed every rainbow and flew to the moon.

He hugged Smudge so tightly and wept from his heart

And the magic of love awoke Smudge with a start!

***

Never again would they practice dark magic

For silly, old jokes can become rather tragic.

From then they built tree huts and dens in the wood

And they only played games that were happy and good.

 

© Phoebe Coghlan 2019

 

POEMS FOR KIDS WRITTEN BY PHOEBE COGHLAN

LET’S CHAT ABOUT THE POEM ~ IDEAS FOR TALKING WITH KIDS

Over-Confidence

1. Smudge and Titch play silly pranks on each other because they think they can manage the dark magic. Does thinking you can manage something mean you can do it? Why or why not?

2. Why do you think Smudge and Titch decided not to use magic for practical jokes anymore?