The Toymaker Must Die

Creative Forums Creative Writing
1

The Toymaker Must Die

The toymaker must die.
The poet must sing.
Please don’t ask why,
it’s the nature of things.
But if you must ask
I’ll tell you the story.
It will be a task
and quite a bit gory.

In fairy tales of reality, the innocent lie
in the blurry edges of confession,
not yet guilty,
but soon by and by.
Pleasures of heroism inflate the poet,
called to lilt a profession of omission,
the truth as he knows it.

The toys come to life
marching of their own accord.
The poet writes refrains
of their dripping battle swords.
“The toymaker must be called to account,”
says the poet with his foun tin pen,
ink rusting the words.
“The toymaker must die.
Send for the men.”

The poet must sing.
He continues again,
“The toymaker’s soldiers
killed 10,000 men.
Their swords are quite sharp,
sharper than any before,
used for slicing, dicing,
beheading, and more.
For every one man’s life
his, mine, or yours—
ten of theirs will be taken
to even the score.
And just to be sure
that there’s killing
no more—
we’ll take the toymaker, his toys,
and his store.”

It was told to the people
the toys were coming on geldings.
But nothing of their swords
and how they were melting.

It is quite true—
The swords–
made of plastic,
not steel.
They were evaporating.
There weren’t even wounds
to be healed.

The toys were no more soldiers
than you or me.
But if anyone’s to blame–
The toymaker
said he.
And what else could the poet
do but agree?

“The toys have returned,”
so the poet sings,
“with empty hands,
missing their king.”

The toymaker said this
on his very last breath—
That he knew nothing
of killing and death.
All he wanted
was to use his hands
to put smiles on the faces
of the kids in the land.

In fairy tales of reality–
The toymaker must die.
The poet must sing.
All go to sleep now,
we don’t speak of such things.

2

I like it. Very intriguing butterfly.

3

Thank you Rainey. This is my first poem that I am truly proud of.

4

I want to say that I really, really, liked this poem. Now, I know that my comment might seem a bit biased (given that you liked a few of my poems, and said so) but I assure you, I’m not one for flase flattery. I really like this piece - it’s one of those I will read and re-read because it facinates me. And with that said, just to show what a germ I can be, did you mean to place a question mark at the end of this sentence: “And what else could the poet / do but agree.”? (I know sometimes question marks are replaced with periods or exclamations for artistic purposes; but it didn’t seem that that was the case here).

p.s.

I’m looking forward to your next.

Adieu.

5

I agree with the rest, a true gem. It is often hard to make rhyming poems work for a cynic like myself, but this does the trick fluidly. I only wish my first foray were as sublime.

6

Thank you Crookfinger Jake and TUM so very much for reading this one and being so nice:)
I was a bit afraid that I would be torn apart for such blatant rhyming.

TUM you are quite perceptive–I did mean to have a question mark there and must have forgotten it. sometimes through the revisions I just read it the way I intended it and still miss a few additions. Thank you for noticing and it’s not nit picky at all, I want people to tell me things like that.

7

exellent work.

I was abit skeptical at first. I thought you were trying to be too profound. But i really really got into. excellent excellent work.

=D>

8

Thank you for reading and I’m so glad you liked it yromemtnatsisrep. I hope never to come off “too profound” because I think that is usually heavy-handed and grandiose. So please let me know if in future attempts you think I am falling into that hole because it is one I have leapt into on at least a few occasions. I appreciate both your skepticism and encouragement very much.

9

i also really like this poem. it’s a good story (though, to be quite frank, i’m not sure what the underlying lesson or philosophical thought is, though i am sure it’s there.)

10

Thanks Creation Imperfect, I’m glad you liked. If you liked the story, then that is more than enough for me.

11

…and shes polite too!

12

Aww, thanks.

13

yeah, she even spells out people’s names instead of reducing it to two or three initials.

14

Bravisimo btrfly - being that I know you normally don’t gravitate to rhyming poetry --whether reading or writing it–, I have to say you have penned an excellent poem regardless of the fact that it rhymes. In terms of “profundity”, it’s Goldilocks in that it’s just profound enough and not vacant on the one hand or heavy-handedly profound on the other - not that that’s necessarily a liability in and of itself. You are a better poet than you give yourself credit for. No, you shouldn’t let it get to your head and have Mohammed Ali syndrome over it and believe yourself to be the greatest poet in the whole world and of all time, but you shouldn’t be too negative in the self-critique of your overall poetry output as it is either. Even though, as a writer, you don’t primarily identify as a poet, I happen to consider you among the most high-caliber poets I know. I am not one to give gushing kudos just to anyone for the hell of it - I give props only to those who deserve it, and you certainly do.

Nels.