amos the churchmouse:a view from under the pew

Editor's note: Amos is a churchmouse, who types by hopping on the computer keyboard, but he can't operate the capital shift, and he shuns punctuation marks - except hyphens and dashes.

larry the leapin lizard
boss i don t know if i ve
told you about larry the
leapin lizard or not
he s a really nice guy
but he s always landing
smack dab in the middle
of something

he s one of the last of
his kind boss there used
to be a slew of them
during the days of little
orphan annie but they
nearly died out from
overuse

anyway freddie the flea
and i were trudging along
a soggy bugtussle road
one day when larry leapt
into the middle of a mud
puddle just in front of
us completely drenching
my mousy face whiskers
and jaws all the way down
to my little tail and paws
but boss it nearly drowned
poor Freddie

woo-whooo says larry after
every leap  did you see all
that muddy water splash
and down it came on every
thing with a big wet
crash woo-whooo
and off he went boss like
a flash to make another
leap and splash

one of these days says
freddie flea to me  he ll
find himself in trouble
he ll leap once too much
and land in a muddle
it ll be like leaping from
the frying pan into the fire
says me but he d
probably knock the grease
everywhere making the
countryside a buggy
funeral pyre

sure enough boss the day
came when trouble reared
its ugly head but it wasn t
larry who faced its evil
dread but those of us who
whined and complained
it was we now beset with
anguish misery and pain

marcellus the cat and a few
of his buddies had us
mice and insects stranded
on a little island surrounded
by a big ol mud puddle
then they lit a fire around
the edges of our island just
to have themselves a little
mousy barbecue

i wish that we hadn t yelled
at larry says me  we could
sure use his leaping ability
right about now

but boss we were glum we
were sure we had offended
our chum and now far and
away he had run
the flames around our island
grew higher and life in its
brevity looked dire  my little
whiskers started smoking
then we heard the loveliest
sound this side of Hoboken

woo-whooo - splash -
it was larry the leapin
lizard in all his glory
but that ain t the end of
the story

larry not only put out every
flame  he taught us not to
blame and complain but to
trust god through thick
and thin love one another
and be friends to the end

amos