What Lou Could Do

By M E Ryan

As I climbed up on top of my grandfather’s knee,
He said, “Sit down, for I have a story for you.

The whole thing begins with a girl named Marie,
And her not very ordinary young brother Lou.

At the time of this story Marie is just three,
While two whole weeks earlier Lou had turned two.

And she was the only one right there to see,
Just what her young brother was going to do.

Outside of their house was a great big oak tree,
And how he got up it, no one quite knew.

He had to come down. On this all could agree.
But just how to do it no one had a clue.

For this tree was as big as a big tree could be.
Of trees that same size there were only a few.

It was the biggest one east of the Caspian Sea.
And much bigger than the one that they had in Peru.

They couldn’t climb up it to get poor Lou free.
They tried using ladders. They tried a crane too.

A hot air balloon? Maybe that was the key.
But it wasn’t. They’d just have to try something new.

If anyone would have thought to ask little Marie,
About what had happened to her brother Lou,

They all could have stopped working diligently.
But no one had asked. So they worked the night through.

Two whole weeks later Lou was still in the tree.
He’d moved into the nest of a large Cockatoo.

And on that second week, unexpectedly,
He stepped off a branch and then… he flew!

The people below they all started to plea.
But Lou didn’t hear them. He was well out of view.

When he came flying back at a quarter past three,
The crowd down below all gave out a loud, ‘Whew’.

And Lou’s little face, it was glowing with glee,
Even though he had caused quite a hullabaloo.

And all of the time it was known to Marie,
Just what it was her young brother could do.

—– —– —– —– —– —– —– —– —–

Many years later away moved Marie.
Away to a land that was called Timbuktu.

She missed her young brother most definitely.
So she thought up a way to bring him along too.

She had a nice house but the yard had no tree.
So she planted a small one and watched as it grew.

More time went by and waited did she,
Always looking way up in the big sky of blue,

Looking way up for her young brother Lou.”

—– —– —– —– —– —– —– —– —–

I climbed down from my perch on my grandfather’s knee
And said, “That story was nice. Too bad it’s not true.”

To which he shook his head, very delicately,
Stood up and coughed and let out a small, “Coo.”

And then up and away in the sky he flew!
Up and away in the big sky of blue.

 

Up and away my dear grandfather Lou.

- Total nr. of readings: 7,874 Copyright © The author [2020] All Rights Reserved. This story may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the author except for personal use.