Sheila Charles THERE ARE FAIRIES AT THE BOTTOM OF MY GARDEN
I used to believe in fairies.
I think all my friends did too.
Remember the tooth fairy?
Well, this is what I would do –
I’d put my tooth under my pillow.
The next morning, when I awoke.
There was a shiny penny.
Oh!! MY fairy must have been broke!
Then one day, Geraldine,
A girl who was in my class,
Told me that when the moon was full,
If you put a jar on the grass,
A fairy would place something in it.
I put out my drinking glass.
I informed my mum I was doing this.
Lo and behold, the next day,
There was a pretty necklace.
I still have it now, by the way.
A while later, I did it again.
Out went the glass on the lawn.
That time I just got a plum
And a piece of cake paper-torn!
I thought, ‘Aren’t fairies fickle?’
Not realizing it was my mum.
First time a lovely link of beads,
The second time – a plum!
The third time at full moon out went the jar.
(By which time my mum had died.)
So, next morning, nothing in it.
Don’t tell anyone, but I cried.
Why hadn’t the fairy remembered?
She must have been preoccupied!
(I hadn’t mentioned it to my dad
Because he was busy doing his orders inside.)
Well, that was the LAST time I did it.
Why bother putting a bottle out.
I mean to say, not even a fairy
Could give me LESS than nowt!
illustration by ume-nori
