WORDS by B.C. Lamb
ILLUSTRATIONS by Kiara Skye Lamb
Every evening
after bedtime stories and sleep tight prayers,
after Eskimo and butterfly kisses,
one last hug and the final tuck
So begin the nightly trips
of fleeting tiptoes down the stairs
sneaking to the kitchen sink;
and upon the consistent history
of this aqueous mystery
my mind began to ponder and think.
So I caught the water wranglers in the act
and I asked my darling daughters,
“Why do you keep sneaking out of bed
to get a drink?”
Looking up ever so innocent and sweet
they spoke in unison,
“There’s a desert in our room, Daddy!”
KIARA: “We get thirsty from the heat.
There is no comfort in our blankets
and we swelter under the sheet,
they are like the sands of the Sahara
scorching our bodies
and burning our feet!”
KeiLynn: “We have to water our camels
that help us traverse the Gobi-like dunes;
they’re parched by the sandstorms
and running on fumes.”
KIARA: “Death Valley resides beside my pillow
where we were chased by a wiley Coyote
and made friends with a furrowed armadillo;
and after she helped us escape the treacherous nip,
we just had to repay her with a kindly sip.”
KeiLynn: “There’s a cactus in the corner
– a Joshua Tree, I think;
it was looking rather wilty
so we just had to get the poor thing a drink.”
KIARA: “We were being monitored by lizards
that claimed to be Outback wizards
that couldn’t perform or do magic tricks
without a few laps and licks;
and they promised they’d be chum
if we would ‘Goanna’ get them some.”
KeiLynn: “There were buzzards buzzing our headboard
waking us up every time we dozed or snored;
at last we made a deal
and they agreed to give up their leverage
in exchange for a refreshing beverage.”
KIARA: “A sidewinder sideswiped our caravan
making us cross our fingers and toes
as he hissed and emptied our canteens,
then he wound around the bends
leaving us to fetch more precious liquid for our friends.”
At last I laughed and said,
“This desert is unfit!
Perhaps I can spruce it up a bit.”
I opened the window
and turned on the fan.
Then I put a small jug of water by the bed.
I called the girls
and explained as I was tucking them in,
“The sun is down
so it is nice and cool in the desert.
Your bed is an oasis and this jug is your watering hole.
If you get out of bed one more time
I’ll have to discipline you for being naughty.”
With sheepish grins
both girls cried out,
“But Daddy,
………now we have to go potty!”
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