Poems for Isabella: ‘Don’t Tell Me’

Don’t tell me about an old woman in a shoe

Don’t tell me about frogs that turn into princes

And don’t even get me started on that girl who choked on an apple

And her seven silly friends

 

Tell me

Something real instead

Tell me

How you found me in the cabbage patch

Tell me how it rained real cats and dogs

And how you had to fight off dragons

And elephants

And twenty-seven crazy policemen

In order to get me home

 

Tell me how you only fed me peaches

For the whole first year

And that’s why I am so sweet

 

Tell me something real instead