2407. Stairway to heaven

And there in front of Matilda was a staircase. She had been heading for school a little tentatively because Fatty the playground bully had been flexing his muscles these past few weeks. But now suddenly in front of Matilda the sky opened up and a staircase of overwhelming length and height opened before her. Was this the stairway to heaven? There was only one way to find out.

Matilda began to climb. Step by step. It was tiring. Her legs were sore. She thought, I can stop climbing whenever I like. So she did. She would stop ascending, sit on a step, and rest. Of course there was no longer much of a view. Clouds shrouded the earth in misty invisibility.

Soon she was on her feet again. Step by step. Higher and higher. She felt pulled towards the apex. Was there perhaps a door? Or a pearly gate? Were there angels waiting to welcome her into Paradise? Matilda thought she could see in the distance where the staircase ended. There was definitely something or somebody there.

Nothing motivates a tired traveller like the thought of arrival. Matilda quickened her step. And there she was! At the apex of the stairway to heaven! She gazed at the most beautiful and welcoming gates in the history of existence.

Fatty the playground bully was there. He pushed Matilda off, over the side of the staircase.

1696. Bumping into people

Gary was the biggest bully this side of the Berlin Wall. Or he would have been if the Berlin Wall was still standing.

If some kid was walking along at school and eating something, like a bun or a piece of cake, Gary would accidentally bump into them so that the thing the kid was holding in his hand dropped onto the ground.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” the victim would say.

“I’m sorry too,” Gary would say. “Real sorry.” And he would accidentally step on the dropped food and squashed it into the ground.

All the kids were scared of him.

One day, it was not at school but on the street, Gary bumped into a kid from school who was eating an ice cream. The ice cream fell to the ground. The kid from school had had enough. He bashed Gary up good and proper.

“We should learn not to be violent,” the principal said on Monday morning. The kid got “ten hours of community service”. Gary continues to bump into people. He’s such a friendly chap.

Poem 48: Bully’s song

(The poetic form selected for this week is the French triolet).

I heard them drive a nail in my coffin.
He’ll die, they said, once he loses air.
Next there was a thud and they were laughin’.
I heard them drive a nail in my coffin.

I used to give them cheek, in fact quite often.
Apparently it’s more than they could bear.
I heard them drive a nail in my coffin.
He’ll die, they said, once he loses air.

To hear the poem read aloud click HERE.