The Bat

Once upon a starry sky,
A little bat came flapping by.
He waved to me in cheerful greeting
As I was in my bedroom, reading.
I was ecstatic! For, you see,
I didn't know any bats personally
So I called out, in my delight,
"Hi bat! What brings you out tonight?
The moon and stars are awfully bright;
I've heard that bats don't like such light."
The bat said, "Sh-h, not so loud!
See, I like to avoid the crowd.
Secrets spread like Elmer's Glue;
If mine got out, then I'd be through."
So I asked him, "What's your secret?
You can tell me; I can keep it.
Do you have rabies? Is that so?"
The bat sighed and replied, "No, no,
This hangover, this awful curse,
Is not like that. It's much, much worse."
I gasped. "Then... then... do you aspire
To be a bloody-fanged vampire?"
The bat, he sighed and shook his head.
He flew up closer and he said,
"Please keep this underneath your hat.
Don't blurt it out to any bat."
And in a voice small as a quark,
He whispered, "I'm afraid of the dark."

~Andrea L. Peterson

---

andrael@skyinet.net Back to the Library of Forgotten Lore Back to Icarus Falls main