The Amazing Miss Shinies
Had just received an invite
For which they were too erudite.
(They read only nonsense verse.)
Ajmal, their friend, came home.
“What do you call this?”
Said one, giving a hiss.
(You know, Shiny tempers.)
The Rajput-Prince-who-wasn’t spluttered,
“M-my grandmother’s rea-d-ding poetry.”
And then, he just blubbered.
(But the Shinies cheered up considerably.)
The Amazing Miss Shinies
Shouted, “Oh really?
What kind of poetry?”
("I just wrote the invitations, "he said.)
At once they declared,
“For this stupendous occasion
We must make a sensation.”
(So they made brand new skirts.)
But when they were ready
They were rather giddy
And forgot to put their shoes on.
(Nothing new, as you know.)
At dinner, Ajmal’s grandmother
Was terribly pleased
That their appetites weren’t appeased.
(So they had extra helpings of dessert.)
When the reading began
The Shinies were quite high.
They were sitting on the fan.
(Thoughtfully turned off by Ajmal.)
The Shinies yelled, “Cheers!”
Because it was nonsense verse.
But the other guests were bores.
(And raised their thin eyebrows.)
Now the Shinies felt
That people who were odiously polite
Were just asking for a fi ght.
(Promptly, they fell on an elaborate hairdo.)
And watched gleefully
As out fl ew a large bird.
Which to them wasn’t absurd.
(Her hair looked like a nest.)
And from another’s cheeped
A cheery baby bird
Who didn’t seem perturbed.
(By his lack of feathers.)
“So you were hiding there!”
The mother told her baby.
And to the blinking lady,
(“I hope you shampooed.”)
As is fi tting, the women
Had turned deathly pale
And were fanned to no avail.
(By grandmother amidst cackles.)
The others stared at this
And left in a haste.
“Ooh, have to run, it’s getting late.”
(One tripped on a Shiny and fainted.)
In the end, grandmother read
To the sleepy-eyed Shinies in bed.
But after she turned off the light,
They DID have a pillow fight.
