Once upon a time, there was a big boy named ttaM. The bad king in the Land of Pod-Pod
used to beat ttaM up all the time. This made ttaM very mad. The King’s name was Padre
s‘ttaM. ttaM was a very big boy. He wished the King would “kick the bucket”, so to speak.
The funny thing was, when Padre s‘ttaM kicked the bucket, the bucket hit ttaM and knocked
him oute. This made ttaM more madder than ever. ttaM had a few friends. These friends
thought the King was bad, too.
Every time ttaM’s friends wanted to come play with him, the King laughed, and burned
their castles down. ttaM liked to sing. The King didn’t like people to sing. ttaM also liked to
play the mandolin. The King didn’t like music at all, and he hated it so he killed people that
did it.
ttaM invited his friends over to the city where he lived, and they all had fun. When
they were having fun, they sang songs. The King came to ttaM’s place, and he came with his
army.
ttaM yelled (ArgZargKLNQTsPgggh!) and he thru his mandolin at Padre s‘ttaM,
and the King’s head fell off. All ttaM’s friends yelled (Yipee! Wow! What a boy!) and they all got
happy. ttaM became the King after the old King died, and ttaM let everyone in the castle and
in the whole Pod-Pod Land play music and have parties and fun and all the people liked him,
and he was King.
This is a poorly disguised satire of real life. Sadly enough, some of the events described are
entirely true. Names were changed to make fun of the characters. Now that time has passed ...
“ttaM” is clearly Matt and “Padre s‘ttaM” is clearly Matt’s
father.
It’s been suggested to me that this is actually short fiction rather than poetry.
However, I urge anyone to check any modern definition of poetry and attempt to prove that this
isn’t a poem.