Is there anything so nice
As curling up
With a lovely book
A cup of tea
And something sweet…
*
Seven chapters long,
Reminds me of a week of days
How much longer it must have taken than that to create the tale,
To watch it become more than mere words
The mother, the father and the boy
Were shipwrecked on a deserted island
Time passed
As time does,
Whether there are clocks to mark it or not.
The mother passed
The father passed
And, the boy was alone
But, he was no longer the boy
He was the hunter now
*
Evening after evening
Her soft voice
Called him to the shore
And to her song
Where the alone of him
Met the sea of her
And
Lapped at his heart
As waves that wet the sand
And make it their very own
So, the mermaid
Who had spent her whole life
Swimming away from things
Left her watery world
To be with the hunter
In their island home
Now, they were two
*
Time passed
As time does
And the hunter found the cub
The baby who would grow to be the brown bear
The hunter brought him home
The sticky honey loving bear
Who curled up by the fire to sleep
Now, they were three
*
Time passed
As time does
And the hunter found the kitten
The baby who would grow to be the lynx
The hunter brought him home
The playful purring lynx
Who loved to give you somethings
And get you to go to somewheres
Now, they were four
Time passed
As time does
And the lynx found a boy
Who would become The boy
*
But, for now
He was a crying baby in a shipwreck,
On that self same shore
Where the hunter had once been the boy in the shipwreck
Where the calling song was sung
Where the mermaid left the sea
And the hunter had carried her home
Yes, that self same shore
With the heart-lapping waves
So with the help of the bear,
The lynx brought the boy to their home
The one overlooking the sea
The hunter, the mermaid, the bear, the lynx and the boy
Now, were five
Just as one head, two hands and two feet
Are five
Held together by home and by heart
*
Time passed
As time does..
…in every line of the tale
There was the whisper of the waves
On the shipwrecked island shore
Singing the song of belonging
Of
The boy, the lynx, the bear, the mermaid and the hunter
Who lived and loved
Who loved and lived
As time passed
As time does
For now and for evermore…
There were no a’s in this tale
As an a could be anyone
Any hunter, any mermaid, any bear, any lynx, any boy
And there were no anyones in this tale
There were only someones
*
There were no names in this tale
But, names were not needed
Nor were they missed
I knew each someone well
As well as they knew each other
*
The hunter only ever hunted for one thing really,
What do You think it was…
And which The are You…
*
I recently read The Animal Family by Randall Jarrell. This is my own retelling of it and how it came to find a home in the heart of me. It’s a charming story written in 1965 with a few very sweet illustrations by Maurice Sendak. At the library it is shelved in the children’s section, and that is where it found me…
****
ellie894 October 14, 2019
Jarrell, Randall. The Animal Family. New York: Pantheon Books, 1965
ellie894 