Ic

Star On My Street

Before I proceed any further, I shouldParenthetic'ly pause in my taleFor writing a chapter (also called interlude)Whose hero – though part of the plot –I am glad to inform is notA stray cat (either male or female).  There's no epithet apt to explainThe cat

The Squeak-Squeak Family

excerpt I asked my neighbour to lend me his tomcat one more time. When he's at his wits' end a man will try anything. Come on then, let's give the tomcat another try. Maybe he'll have learned his lesson by now, especially since the neighbour was determined

Apolodor's Travels

excerpts 1The circus tent at Mosh-Mosh fairWas where – tucked in his frigidair –A penguin dwelt without a care. From Labrador he'd landed there.  His name? Apolodor, Esquire. Profession? Singer in the choir. He was no conjurer, therefore,Nor did he walk the tight

The Chick

Sandy, listen to your mammy! One spring, a very tired quail – tired since she was coming from far, far away, from Africa – alighted on a plain of green wheat, close to a stand of saplings. After she rested for a few days, she started to gather twigs, dried leaves, straws

Scaredy

It's winter. The night shines over a fairy tale world: sugar-coated trees, crystal field, mirror-like pond. And throughout the wide surface, the lights in the sky's huge chandelier are turned on one by one, as in an immense dance room. The wild animals of the forest

Magnanimity

At the break of dawn, the light performs wonders on the pond. Bits of broken mirrors glimmer on the water over here; steel plates glitter over there; treasures of yellow coins lay among the reeds. Rays of gold flow into the water lilies like into floating cups. A silvery

The Snail

Today, under the dead leaves I foundThe yellow spiralled shell of a snail,Light and empty and very frail,That someone abandoned on the ground.  A jelly-bodied snailHas wandered summer-long around the garden,And all he had as wardenWas this humble shell,So thin and so much

Among Insects

Beginning of autumn. Full moon. Distant hills. All the stars are bigger. An orchestra of mosquitoes in the background.  A mosquito: - I can't take it anymore! My proboscis is freezing! A spider: (Huddled in the dew, Shivering and bearing his cross): - Not even a fly

The Ballad Of A Cricket Small

Upon hills huddled together,Upon rugged fields of heather,On a grey November morning,Autumn happened without warning.  Skeletal, long-limbed, berserk,Sprinkling nature through the murkWith a branch of poison oakWielded with a spiteful jerk,Autumn's spreading all aroundAs

Quote A Paper Zoo

How do birds and animals understand one another when we, people, can talk, but do not often get along well?Birds and animals come next to one another and whisper, but tell us only meow. (aged 10) by student in The Zaica Experiment

The Alley Boys

excerpt  3. THE INCREDIBLE ADVENTURES OF STING AND STUNG Sting and Stung came into being in a jar of mustard, on the very first morning after I'd dreamt of serpentine road bends and devils. Had it been necessary to invent a realm for them to come forth from – a

The Bobiners

excerptONE-EYE-SHORTOnce upon a time there was a blond pirate who had one blue eye, while the other was covered with black cloth on purpose. Because the first ship had been taken over by sparrows, the second was on the point of sharing its fate. The ship One-Eye-Short worked