Mowgli: Hair and Back Again

or Snarky Little Bastard 

Written for the Dove and Indiblogger 'My beautiful hair story' contest.

Little Mowgli, a rambunctious fellow,
Once made friends with a hairy sow;
Rolling in the muck, they’d cause a furor
And the animals all laughed at the human boar

Then came the time for his weekly bath
And Baloo the bear didn’t know where to start!
Mowgli, now, was a child close to his heart,
But he’d turned “dirty” into an art

Baloo decided to first tackle his head
And then the rest of the boy, ’ere he fled
Baloo lathered the shampoo and then he said,

“I’ll scrub you clean and give you some bread.”

But Mowgli, that wily little fellow,

At the top of his voice, he began to bellow
“NO!!!  I’d rather stay grimy, dirty and yellow!”
Till an idea struck him and he started to mellow

Then came the sow who was a telapath,
She helped Mowgli escape from Baloo’s wrath
They ran helter-skelter off the path,
And soon were in another mud bath.

Baloo, now really mad at the little airhead,
Decided to wash his own hair instead.
Now he’s got hair like silken thread,
Silky and strong, and not just on his head!

Mowgli returned, saw Baloo’s hair glow,
Turned impish and said, “Look like a marshmallow!”
Baloo trembled in rage, turned quite into jello,
And dragged the boy to their bungalow

There he dunked him into a hot bubble bath
(it was either that, or make up line with ‘math’)
Then it came, like David versus Goliath,
And Baloo scrubbed, like a psychopath

Finally, forward, the sparkling towhead was led,
Super shiny and clean; quite the figurehead
And the telepathic sow in snarky his mind read—
“I hope to God this poem was proofread!”

Epilogue:
Later that day, the sow heard a thought, the legends say,
“... and that’s the end of my hair problems! Now, can we please go play?”

(with apologies to Mr Kipling)

Part II (revisited)

Part II (revisited)

The curtains are drawn across the stage
Lights fade out slowly
Till total darkness prevails

ZAP! strobe lights and kettle-drums:
Actors riot across the stage!
Radiant–even through the darkened screen

Drama unfolds before unblinking eyes
Shielded by the pouring rain

The sky–a chameleon:
Red, Orange, Black,
Interspersed by violent white.

The darkness looms, occasionally,
Lights soon return, and zigzagging paths
Mark the stairway to heaven.

Lights go off, come on again...
The darkness has not a chance.

I turn off my night light
Staring through a shut window
At Ma Nature's spectacular display

Act one is over, the curtain reopens
The stars come out, their time for hiding has past.
It's the clouds, this time-

The wind appears - a major player,
The earth heaves a sigh of dry relief

Black turns to grey, and grey to white
But not for long, the show must go on
So the curtains will be drawn,

The spotlight will come on,
Act Two will follow, And three...
And four... And five...