Outside Alone

He played outside alone with his branch bayonet and a pocket full of stones
In cardboard clad armor he stood wielding his weapons as walked into the wood
Perched in a lonely pine, feathers aflutter, flustered, struggling to speak her mind
A scared little sparrow she sings. Whistles a warning to this warrior out wandering

Brave boy now bold and brash bade the unfriendly forest fold and simply let him pass
Then brushed up against a thorn. And it's quick, poisoned prick that left his t-shirt torn

And he woke with all manner of creatures all leering and laughing
All crying for blood from this bold, cocksure boy caught trespassing
And there on a throne, thatched thicket, thorny with thistles
Sat the King of the forest, scepter stretched soiled and bristled
And the King was a cricket crowned with crocuses, acrid and wilting
And with one damning stroke of his scepter, was the boy sentenced: Guilty

They led him gagged and bound, spat in his face as they gathered all around
Fanning the fire so high that the flames licked his feet, tongues tickled torment as the Rise

Over the creatures cries hear the sweet scared sparrow singing in the evening sky
And so tiny little bird lands lightly on the boys slouched shoulders unheard

And she quickly unwinds from the boys wrists the twine that has bound him
But before she takes flight, the scared sparrow is sighted and felled to the ground
And the animals cackle content with their catch at this carcass strewn, crumpled all Covered in ash
And the boy watched in horror with tears in his eyes as he drew his dagger and let his Stones fly
And swinging his saber, he severed the heads of the animal horde leaving all of them Dead
But the cricket king cowered at the small boy's stick sward as he offered his scepter, his Throne
And his word
With bitter pity, boy lowered his hand as he thrust wretched king with a leaf in a rusty tin Can

As he parts from the trees nursing nicked knees
Clutching his cricket in the warm summer breeze
His tummy, tight, aches as his hunger awakes
He sheds sheathe and armor, lets character break

He played outside alone with his branch bayonet and a pocket full of stones