The Gaunch family lived on a quiet block with wily rose bushes and towering willow trees.
There were picket white fences and chirping birds and buzzing bees.
Most of the people were friendly on the local blocks
With waves of hello when dogs went for walks.
But in one disheveled pink house with the paint chipping,
And an overgrown yard desperately in need of clipping,
Was a strange tall man with a long brown beard and brown and grey hair,
Steely blue eyes and a wooly demeanor,
He had puffs of colored smoke that would blast from his chimney top
And potions that would leak when he walked with a bounce and a hop.
And the magical brews would leak into ground water and into the grass,
Granting small miracles to happen at the houses he would pass.
Now Penelope and Ashton Gaunch were not the tidiest of children,
They had holes in their pants knees and their room looked like a pig pen.
They never wiped their dirty feet when entering their house.
They trudged mud and dirt around, making an attractive home for one little black mouse.
One sunny afternoon as the the wizard happened to walk by,
The potion spilled and leaked into the Gaunch’s grass nearby.
And the children ran through the grass and mud as they typically do,
And failed to wipe their feet, or wash their hands, too.
The potion had already taken to effect.
The mini mudmen grew to three inches tall and erect.
They had features of a man, but oozed with the flow of mud,
And had one instinct that had gradually began to bud.
The mudmen marched at a slow oozing pace,
They tried to explore the extent of their space.
The little black mouse fought a battle to protect the Gaunch family from this muck,
But it finally happened, from a bit of bad luck,
Penelope and Ashton went to grab for their shoes,
Which were fiercely protected by the mudmen to use.
So instinctually, the mudmen went for the children’s toes,
And ate them all off with sharp mud teeth, then dissolved back to the shoes’ soles.
But now the mudmen are born,
So they can grow from the mud of unwiped shoes that were worn,
And serve the sole purpose to eat children’s toes,
Reminding us all to wipe our feet clean wherever one goes.
Valerie Carsey, LLC 