Where’s Uncle Midge? I asked
one sunny afternoon.
He’s off with the fairies again, aunty said
Then quickly changed the topic.
Off with the fairies? How did aunty know?
Did he leave a note saying he’d be back
By so and so a time?
It was hard to imagine Uncle frolicking with the fairies
if that is what
One does when one is ‘off with them’.
He seemed too weighty and substantial for that.
And anyway where was he off to?
Where does one go when one is ‘off with the fairies’?
I looked out the lounge room window out
To the backyard where uncle often used to wander
But there was nothing — only a pair
Of garden gnomes who seemed to be smiling
As if they had seen something.
John Malone 
Love the whimsy!
I’m off to the land of dragons for a few days. That’s Wales for the uninitiated. Hoping to take in some old stones, burial chambers, and a few welsh spirits…like gin.
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Lol :):) thank you, Mick. I was hoping for a comment. I don’t think I’ve written a whimsical poem good as this one.
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Funny my mother used to say off with the pixies. Perhaps an Australian thing. Although I thought you Johnny, were from SA?
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I am. SA stands for South Australia. We have our own unique Aussie vocab, some inherited from our ‘mother country’ of which ‘off with the fairies’ is probably one. Uncle was an oddity. He had eletro-convulsive therapy at one stage but he was always happiest when ‘off with the fairies’ 🙂
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I don’t know where off with the fairies would be, or what you’d do, but I bet it would be fun.
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my aunty told me before she passed away she feared I inherited Uncle’s tendency; still, it’s not a bad trait to have if you’re a writer 🙂
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Love it! This is one of your best!
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thanks Chelsea; glad you enjoyed it; uncle would have been proud: I can see him now on the back porch, looking out at the drizzle, proclaiming “if this weather keeps up, we’ll have more of it” 🙂
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Thanks for sharing, John. Ah, why can’t we be happy for people who prance with the fairies? Are we jealous of their minds or just scared of what they can do? Gotta make them fit back into our little crayon boxes and resume colouring. No more fairie prancing for so many amazing minds back then…..I know what it’s like to be viewed that way.
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so do I, Karen; Uncle Midge reminds me of myself in many ways though I haven’t had an ECT thank goodness 🙂 aren’t all writers like that, all artists to some extent? glad you enjoyed it; and I loved your comment 🙂
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