Stories of Young Cheddar, The Cedar; Whoopsy Daipsy
Stories of Young Cheddar, The Cedar
Title: Whoopsy Daipsy
Morning broke in the night and
For these four trees it meant
Perhaps
The moon had shone on their bark just right
Or if cloudy
It was that they had knocked their young canopies
Against their Tree neighbours of the Day just gone
The necessary number of times before dawn
So they may be sure to
Wake for their work on time
Should that dratting Moon not show
Perhaps
So the four saplings stirred with crunches and pops
To the dark dark dark
Cold cold cold
Vast vast vast
Home they called The Forest
And the wind’s recorder was
As tuneless and unpleasant as ever
Still calming and familiar
Bleak but
They were
Never The Less
Never. The. Less.
Is what they might be heard chanting
Picking up their spirits
As they trudged the tracks
Nevertheless
Perhaps
Indeed
They were a family of orphans
These four Steward Trees and
They were different from
The Other Trees of The Forest
Their neighbours of the Day just gone
“Par-boiled potatoes”
Shouts Cherry Sour
Naughty They
They
Habitually random in outburst
Like their sister Cherry Wild
Indeed
These were two of the four
All of whom root for the rays
Standing still with the unconscious ones
The Other Trees of The Forest
Ours though
The Steward Trees of The Forest
This of course their sleep
The daytime
On this their ever so
Seemingly
Never ending
Work-Filled
Wanderings
You know
Indeed
You know
Some say
Of our four saplings
They
Steward Trees
Some say
Steward Trees are blessed
But others say cursed
Regardless – you know - these four had their work
Indeed
Perhaps
Never the less
So now then
Under the lights of the sky
The Morning of the Night had broken up to them
And opened up to them anew
Morning
Morning Indeed
First Thing was the first thing to be done
Which was why it was called First Thing
So The Night Opened to Them
First Thing – to eat
For them – as always – the same
For months now
Jaffa Cakes
And they chatted as they were forever doing
“It’s a biscuit”
Insisted Cherry Sour to Their Sibling Cherry Wild
“Erm zzztttt it’s notttt – pyjamas –
I’VE FOLDED MINE!±!±!”
Replied Cherry Wild to Cherry Sour
Who in confusion asked
“Erm…zzzttttt – what’s pyjamas?”
Here Cherry Sour mimicking Cherry Wild’s zzzzzttt tick
Naughty Naughty Cherry Sour
And Chestnut Sweet fielded the question
The twins’ sister
“Pyjamas
It’s what the humans wear to bed”
And they’d now lost the thread
Forgetting entirely what they were arguing about until
Cheddar Chimed in
“You know I think they must be biscuits
I mean – they are obviously a cake because –
Spongey – err you twit
But I think anything we eat is a biscuit
We say it for something that is
Discrete yet identical
Right?
Reproducible identical
But things that we need like
Paracetamol
Is a biscuit
To me at least
Easy Easy
The Other Trees
Oh Awkward
Shhhhhhhhhh
Reproducible-Identical yes jester but
……we don’t eat the Other Trees now do we?
Do we?
And Chestnut Sweet fields
“You know you really do talk too much don’t you”
Caught
And with that a branch fell from above
The Forest a-la-la
Hitting and knocking Cheddar down
Floored and Seasoned
The Forest wields Karma
Indeed
Show-off
Now
Jaffa Cakes eaten
Indeed
It was then that Mr Badger Merlin Delivered
And the stars were there to appreciate the moment
Though the light not needed by the Steward Trees since
These our four saplings of The Steward Trees
They –
As with all The Steward Trees
They saw the Delivery
Or see completely
All without an eye between them
You see
Indeed
All while going about their duties
Impressive indeed
What is going on here?
No eyes
Perhaps
Indeed
So Mr Badger Merlin had come up
From out of his badger set
To Deliver
But also to cajole cajole this
HIS
Troupe of youths
And he followed them everywhere so he did
Unseen until – until
Until it was time to Deliver
So He
He did
This so
All he’d known
Indeed
Since Mr Badger Merlin had been assigned to them He long ago resigned to the FUTILITY of it all
No flotilla for help
No fruit for soothe
Just coke to drink
He knew there was no stopping IT
So
He gnawed the roots and ushered the Ants and
He took the Duties
He understood the Duties and
He passed them on as he was shown to do
And he followed them everywhere so he did
Unseen until – until
Until it was time to Deliver their Duties
As ever
Every Dusk
Shortly after
First Thing
So I suppose Mr Badger Merlin was
Second Thing – though no one said it of course
He, Mr Badger Merlin
A geriatric jack-in-a-box on Manna
Like the Israelites of Antiquity
Now some Coke import
Cans upon cans of the stuff rattled around him
Upon emergence from his earthy badgery set
Indeed
So cajole cajole he did
As he delivered that night’s
The Parchment of Duties of Eve’ Song that
Cherry Sour so detested
Not the Duties but the means of receiving them
“Voila there you go have a good one – off you pop – allez allez – giddy up”
Said He slurping coke
Grey and black and disgruntled and knowing – Mr Badger Merlin
Gave swipe to Cherry Sour – a custom of the parade like
Coconut Custard Creams with afternoon Tea at Grannies
TOTALLY FLIPPING BONKERS
Indeed
He would cut Them
Our Cherry Sour
He would not fail to lacerate
The poor thing
Cherry Sour as he Delivered the Duties
The Parchment of Duties of Eve’ Song that
Cherry Sour so detested
This dark daily occurrence
A part of Work
Life
But evermore
For Cherry Sour this treatment
Had been ruminating a
Hating of
Mr Badger Merlin
See cuts each time for as long as
Can be remembered
Beyond then even
But
Time to them was abstract
Like how a life-long prisoner can play with it
Indeed
Nevertheless
No wonder the pour little thing detested all this
Cheddar ever the magician of justice
Chimed his glockenspiel
To sound another attempt at tackling
The Thing
A squabble ensued between the four
Led by the elder
The details of which are impossible to gather
Since when these four bicker
Extremely
Words cease
Our Young Cedar, Cheddar
Intelligibly rounds off the axe swinging with:
“Right that’s settled – Cherry Sour I hear you honey but
‘Parently you peewees wont let me – sooooo –
maybe just take it and suck it up cus
there isn’t any changing that Mr Badger Merlin
An am kinda getting fed up of hearing about it
You have your Rum & Raisin don’t you?!”
Cherry Sour nodded
And so
It was agreed Cherry Sour would continue to take
The Parchment of Duties of Eve’ Song
Their Instructions for Work
For that is how it had always been and
Cherry Sour was the only one eating
Or rather
Needing
The eating of the Rum & Raisin Dark Chocolate
They so desperately shouldered
You see
Indeed
So – for that reason alone
And for being a stubborn sticky-bun
They quick-sanded the situ to status quo
You see
And so
But hang on there you birdy-bee
Why did
Exactly
Why did
Why do
They not let Cheddar get the letter?
This, I do wonder
Perhaps
Indeed
Perhaps
Indeed
“Onwards”
Says Chestnut Sweet
“The air is fresh and I am ready to do this
Are you? Another day
Meetings and First Thing
and Second Things all done now yeah?”
Stretching rhetorically and swaying to the sound of the wind
The recorder
The wind
A tuneless and
An unpleasant sound
It has been mentioned
But nevertheless
Indeed
They left for their work
Duties in hand
A purposeful wander through
The Forest
With no progress on the niggles really though
Perhaps
Indeed
So they moved on
Creeping along the rows
Of stiff trees not blessed
Or was it cursed like them
For they
These four & others
There were others of course
Also unseen as these four are
And their Duties?
All for the humans of The Forest
Who lived in the spaces where a few too many trees had fallen
In houses of brick and thatch
Familiar
But
Indeed
May we please
Now allow
A moment for
Chestnut Sweet
As Our Four Saplings walk
She – Chestnut Sweet is just that
Certainly good or of the light but certainly
A little lemon meringue pie curt incisive sometimes
And what else?
Well
She enjoys a smattering of yoga after
First Thing and after
Second Thing
So to speak
Indeed
Oh she’s wise but not quite like Cheddar
Perhaps
They – Chestnut Sweet
The next in line behind him
The Eldest
The Elder
Our Young Cedar
Indeed
The Second being Chestnut Sweet
And to keep them so – Young Cedar
Gives the reigns to Chestnut Sweet like
You lead
I am leader
Perhaps
Anyway
So for these our young working saplings
Our orphans
By the power of some
Force of The Forest
How distinct
Indeed distinct indeed
And indeed here is another
Distinct matter
At some point since waking up
To their Work
For the first time
They must have decided between them
“We are nevertheless indeed” or a case of
Telling themselves so
Given how much they did so say it
For they were special and had this WORK
To do
Always
Indeed
However – if we may
Let’s turn back briefly to the oddity of our
Young Cedar
Well
Indeed
Perhaps
Cheddar was the one they looked to
Always he remained though
Totally and utterly
Oblivious to it
“Cutlery”
Shouts Cherry Sour
Perhaps
Indeed
So it seems at least
But there’s so much more beyond
The itchy bark faces that make up
Him
Perhaps
Indeed
It wasn’t obvious to Cheddar why or
Why he was the only one to have
A nickname since
Mr Badger Merlin, Young Cedar, Chestnut Sweet
Cherry Wild and Cherry Sour
Were their names as given and
Known as such from when they
Woke up to their Work for the first time
Names
Given by The Mother of The Forest
Perhaps
All recorded
All recorded as the
Wind’s flute sounds tuneless and unpleasant
As you’ve heard
Indeed
But
One moment please
Before my introductions cease
This is important
It should be said too that
In a manner semi-unknowing
These four
Or rather three of the four were shook
Each Morning of the night
Not just by their evening rituals
Or the silver flow of the moon
As mentioned
But
Indeed
It was this body
This
Their
Local Colony of the Mother’s Hips
So they say
So they call it
Perhaps
They – this body
It
A
mezmeration of littlies
Named to them by
Mr Badger Merlin
Indeed
For our young Steward Trees
Are blind to the spectacle
Or so it seems
This
A monstrous illumination
The Forest finds tentacles
Trains of humming sun run all over
Ants
Part of The Legion of the Ants of The Forest
And the job really did seemed very vital
Based on the display of light alone
Indeed
Aside from the
Dawn-time rituals of our four saplings
Or the
Silver flow of the moon
Aside from these wee things
As mentioned
There was also
As I say
This tremendous display of photons
vanishing before Cheddar could ever
rumble alive
Indeed
First Thing
Indeed
And
As mentioned
It would seem to me that these Ants are
Filling up the cup of just
Three of our four saplings
Not Cheddar
Is it that he’s the eldest?
The Elder?
Nearly
Nearly there
Indeed
The truth was
There were few who really knew
What IT meant
Mr Badger Merlin being one but when asked
He would always say the same –
“I do not have the words – it’s not mine to tell”
It was certain that nobody knew what could be done
“It has just always been so
zzztttttt”
Chewed Cherry Wild – in a moment of
Context
Context being that of silence
And the absurd
And the gnawing on her right branch
Oh she did have a tendency to squeak a bit
With excitement