Someone Shut That Baby Up
by Casey Jepson
© 2000

Long ago back in the day
the days of darkness and light
In a poor neighborhood with a bad reputation
A baby was born with unseen fangs
A baby that would ride the back of a mighty dragon
But the baby started small
as all babies do
He slept in a comfy crib and ate with a silver spoon
And he drew pictures of boats and flowers
He wanted to go to school
where he would draw more boats and better flowers
But they didn’t let him in
So he threw a tantrum and had to sit in the corner
In the corner of that shabby house
in that poor neighborhood
he thought he would do better than drawing flowers
The next day he told his fellow children
that he would clean up these houses
And they listened to him with open arms
At that moment a small lizard was born
at the feet of the baby
He sent the gecko, or whatever it was, into his house
It ran out the resident rats,
eating those that couldn’t keep up
And it grew
The other children thanked the baby
And the baby, with all his pride,
kept going
He had the lizard eat all the spiders and hamsters
Until it grew larger than any seen before
It was a dragon
And this dragon caught the town by surprise
When it trampled through the neighbor’s yard
And chased out all the cats and dogs
eating some, of course
And as it sat upon the neighbor’s house
the baby sat upon its back and smiled
Instantly the dragon tore down the street
knocking down telephone poles and seizing house after house
Soon the whole neighborhood
Cowered before the baby an his dragon
while only the baby’s roommates cheered
at the new lack of mice and hamsters
Two doors down some old men sat in their house
that was protected only by a moat
And feared what might happen next
All the dragon could do was throw rotten eggs at that house
Unfortunately for the baby,
the block to the east had its own dragons
smaller in size than the baby’s, but with strength in numbers
While the uberlizards spat fire at each other,
the yolk-covered old men called their cousins from a mile west
and schemed
Just across the moat from the old men
was a mansion that the baby’s family once befouled
As was now done heavily by the dragon
And while the dragon fought the other dragons
A storm rolled across the moat
And out of the storm jumped several boys
Some from the old house, some from a mile west
Each armed to the teeth
As they shot diaper after diaper,
the baby slept in
And the dragon didn’t know what to do
except to shrink
As the boys broke through the front door of the mansion
The baby woke up and mounted its dragon
But by now it was a small lizard, and the baby fell off
and started to cry
One boy stepped on the gecko, killing it
And the baby decided to shut itself up
So now the mice and spiders run free



Can you guess what this poem means? This is the third installment in my contest. If you think you know what this poem is an allegory of, take a chance to win.

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