Thursday, January 17, 2008

A Tent

One for the Dangerous Book for Boys

A tent went up on the grass:
just room for a boy & his brother,
who waited for day to pass -
kept wishing that day would pass
as theyd never wished of another

At last they got their wish.
Darkness fell & off they went
feeling quite daredevilish -
yes, really daredevilish -
to spend a night in that tent.

Night is dizzy & deep;
the wall of a tent is thin;
they were almost too scared to sleep,
but whispered each other to sleep
as stars & ghosts listened in.

And the tent flew through the night
on the back of the turning world,
which brought them home all right,
them & the tent, still upright
and now lavishly dew-pearled

Christopher Reid