Beautiful Stories of Awkward Monsters
by
Matt Zurbo
I see this as a series of creepy drawings with text to the side. Bedtime rhymes and ditties of a different kind.
Better Red
One day a fire started burning,
on poor old Bobby’s head.
He walked around wearing it proud,
“Better red,“ he said, “than dead.“
A Bigger Picture
Imagine if fish flew,
on wings made out of hands,
from there anything would be possible,
life would be quite grand.
Gargoyle Dreams
Hope is such a funny thing,
do gargoyles
wish on brighter springs?
If they did, what would that wish be,
to have soft edges, like leaves on a tree?
To invent a spray that keeps pidgins at bay,
or, maybe,
to chase all humans away?
Maybe they would hope for something
simple and true,
to fall in love,
raise a kid or two.
Evil Eye
One day Tommy Tuckers
looked his demons in the eye.
He growled and spat and snapped
so much they began to cry.
“Don’t pick on us!“ they wailed.
“We are only you!“
“Don’t you think I know?“ said Tommy.
“That’s exactly why I’m blue.“
Werewolf’s Delight.
Freda howled at the moon,
nearly every night.
For loneliness,
for mightiness,
for romance, melancholy
and fright.
But best of all,
some times near dawn
when no-one else could see,
the moon would howl back, and,
for those brief moments,
both of them felt free.
Forever Sail Away
All Mandy wanted
was to survive another day.
to save up and build a moat
on which she could forever
sail away.
Beasts and Businessmen
“What matters most,“ said the monster,
all dark and hairy and grey,
“is that I remain safe
from the ugly light of day…
Cold Nasties
Sonja went to the snow,
hoping to freeze all
the demons within her,
but their chattering teeth
drove her insane,
so she put them in the freezer.
The next time Sonja opened her fridge,
her demons had been busy,
they pummelled her with snowballs
and sang rude Christmas ditties.
Look!
The vampire looked into
the mirror,
but found nothing there,
which gave him no way of knowing
if he had a good evil stare.
Little Toes Grows
Shiela wrote a letter,
into which she wrapped her toes,
then sent them
‘Care of the forest’
to see if they would grow,
into ten little girls,
all scruffy, yet still pretty,
running wild and free
far away from the city.
Help! Don’t Help!
Ritta was locked up
in a dark and lonely cage,
a prisoner despite
her tender small girl age.
“I’ve been in here so long,“ she croaked,
“I’ve forgotten what I did…“
“But if I had the chance,
whatever it was,
I’d do it again.“
And she did!
Letting Go
”Sometimes I can’t be bothered,“
Angry Jenny said.
So she sat in a field,
let all care go,
and became a zombie, instead.
The Old Man
The old man had a galaxy
spiralling around within his skull.
It made him feel mighty,
sometimes horribly small,
But never,
ever dull.
Mushroom Men!
Not all magic is big and bold,
nor every creature yet discovered,
I suspect there’s a tribe of mushroom men
living beneath my cupboard.
Cheeky, sneaky creatures,
without parents or schools,
with mysterious ways and culture,
safe from us and all of our rules.
Marta and Zabreena
Marta and Zabreena
fell in love with the wild storm.
So they called a big tin owl,
roaming twixt dusk and dawn.
Marta then commanded,
knowing it would lead to strife.
“Take us where there’s such power,
dragons come to life!”
“Where clouds crash,” Zabreena added.
“And lightening fills the air.”
“We might end up dead,
but it beats staying in bed!”
“We’ll take our chances up there.”
Trap Door More
There is a trap door
in the floor,
right next to my bed.
Because it’s never opened,
my imagination stays
well fed.
Lord of Lies
Beelzebub, the Lord of Lies, kicked a goal
when the ghouls came to play
the demons.
“It went right in the middle!“
he cried,
but nobody believed him…
Boo You!
The tortured ghost
felt let down,
neglected,
if not quite rotten.
The rock star was twice
as scary as him,
nastier,
and far, far less easily forgotten.
Itch!
Imagine if a mosquito
could somehow bite my heart?
Would it itch,
and if it did,
where would the scratching start?
A Fearful Swap
Yesterday while playing,
a stranger came up to me,
Insisting: “I’m done with my fears,
I give them to you for free!”
“Thank you, oh, how kind,”
in return I said.
“No, thank you,” he insisted.
“If I keep mine, I might be dead.”
“I understand,” I told him.
“Mine freak me right out.
“But I can’t take something for nothing.
“You have mine and sort them out!”
“Deal!” he grinned a mighty grin.
“A bargain and fair trade!”
And we went out separate ways,
To see what sort of deals we’d made.
Little Pete
Little Pete
was last seen running though the street,
eyes wide with fright.
When people asked him why,
all he could say was:
“Good night, bad night, good night.”
The End
365 kids books in 365 days 