Romance in the Dark
by
Matt Zurbo
Froop was the weirdest creature
found in the ocean’s depths.
Tired of the dark and cold
into the sea he wept.
(Weird phosphorous ‘fish’ surrounded by others like it. Fish looks sad. Other creature mostly eating each other.)
“I can’t go on like this,”
he confessed to the phosphorous squid,
so swam towards the surface,
on a death-seeking bid.
Sure enough Froop’s body,
twisted with changing water pressure,
bent and buckled and warped,
before exploding like a geyser!
(Body twisting, Outer shell falling off, flesh expanding.)
When all was said and done, though,
Froop was still alive,
looking kind of human,
ready to see the other side.
(Pile of broken shell under him. He is now puffy and stringy, with weird bits still off his back, but basically human, squinting, shielding eyes as looks at sun coming through shallow water.)
The light hurt his eyes,
he had nothing to say.
That made him weirdly hip,
in a strange sort of way.
(Wearing sunglasses and shorts, carrying top from pile of clothes belonging to swimming hippies. Clothes covering up bit that don’t look human.)
When he wailed and called,
to the oceans deepest creatures,
someone recorded it,
and gave it to school teachers.
(Standing on rock at water’s edge, body straight, calling to se, while odd sorts dance and shield their ears, and worship him and buckle in pain.)
“A lesson, 101,” they said,
“in how to sing with passion!”
Froop became a hit,
and also a fashion.
(Froop on city street, dressed ‘out there’, hugging a fish bowl with goldfish in it. Everybody walking around hum, including kids and garbos, dressed like he is.)
Froop could not believe,
that humans couldn’t see,
all of those amongst them,
“Different just like me.”
The shaved chimpanzee,
employed as a barber.
The smelly Outback bunyip,
working as a gardener.
The alien policeman,
hiding in plain sight.
The abrasive, weird teacher,
obviously not quite right.
(Teacher with cluster of extra eyes in side of head, one in ear.)
Not only not left alone,
Froop was a big hit!
Whatever it was he had,
the public wanted it!
A movie deal was offered,
a newspaper column, too.
“Run for office!” they demanded.
“Oh man, I’d vote for you!”
(Froop hiding under rug in office. Executives and agents and reporters all holding out contracts or microphones and cameras.)
Under the stinky office rug,
Froop dreamed a giant crab was there.
A salty creature of the deep sea,
that knew how to care.
“Don’t listen to them,” it whispered.
“They are not so tough.”
“They have never felt the heartache,
of living in the crush!”
Froop had had enough,
he swished his mighty tale,
eating five or six people,
who thought he couldn’t fail.
‘You’re all mad,’ Froop thought.
‘I just wanted to be left alone,’
so returned to the dark,
of the deep he once called home.
Safe and heavy and lonely,
Froop had a change of strange heart,
“In the darkness,” he concluded,
“is where the romance starts.”
(Froop, still in suit, tie flowing with water, hand out. Barnacles and weird bits of flesh now showing, he is holding cupped palm out a few inches under small/cute/crusty deep sea fish that is 80% sharp teeth. Fish has single, droopy antenna, with phosphorous love hear glowing at end of it. That glow is providing only light in the dark.)
The End
365 kids books in 365 days 