The Planter

I just recently read The Ramayana and The Mahabharata: two wonderful Hindu stories with masses of meaning. I particularly liked the way the Mahabharata is written in verse translated from Sanskrit.

I decided to attempt an epic (by my standards) of my own. I hope that in a few thousand years it gets translated into Sanskrit and is hopefully recited by one of Vyasa's decedents.  

Jack and the Like Tree (a fairy story)

Part one:

The planter

A boy out walking down a lane

Once came across a like tree seed

Inside a bag on which was writ

“For satisfaction guaranteed

Dig a deep hole and plant therein

And every morning for a year

upon that spot a comment make

And there your Like tree shall appear!”

And Jack,(for so our hero’s named)

Was young, and had time on his hands

So every morn, come rain or shine

He catered to the seed’s demands

A comment sometimes from within

And sometimes one of Google found

Was uttered daily as advised

By him upon that sacred ground

Three hundred and three score plus five

Each day he marked them every one

Spring, summer, autumn, winter passed

And when the final day was done

There still was nothing to be seen

No shoot or sapling sprouting there

Jack went despondent to his bed

In disappointment and despair

With weariness, and restlessness

And torment on that final night

In darkness there awake he stared

Eyes sore with unfulfilled delight

Till finally he fell asleep

His thoughts exhausted and resigned

Then came to him the strangest dream

A nightmare of the darkest kind

An overture of horns and drums

(A tune of dread and pain and fear)

A lightning FLASH!  A thunder CLAP!

The sound of footsteps coming near

Jack hiding in a darkened glade

For in that land a beast did dwell

More fearsome than the basest fiend

That ever walked the depths of Hell

“I am the ruler of this land”

The ever searching creature said

“I know you boy, your name is JACK

And when I find you, you’ll be DEAD!”

Jack, running from his hiding place

The monster’s breath upon his neck

Then tripping on a fallen branch

Lay helpless like a pawn in check

Resigned in terror there he lay

As talons grabbed and clawed his back

Then came a voice from far away

His mother calling “JACK JACK JACK!

Jack wake up it’s only a dream

Poor love you do look terrified

Get out of bed and come and see

There’s something going on outside”

A crowd had gathered in the street

Their faces gazing at the sky

Behind Jack’s house a tree had grown

So unimaginably high

A trunk so wide it filled the space

Where once a well-kept garden thrived

Jack with his mother stood transfixed

No bush, no lawn, no flower survived

With eyes wide open, mouths agape

In wonderment, and quiet dismay

More people came to view the tree

Drawn to it on that fateful day

For none had ever seen the like

It was magnificent indeed

A marvelous thing to BEHOLD!

A giant borne of the Like tree seed

End part the first.