If You Really Want to Know

^{_{Inner Beauty, © Thomas Barbey}}

I failed Goblin Finishing School for being too nice.  
Cause some goblins are sweet underneath
they just pretend to be grieved to warn the crazies away.  
That’s humans to you.  They’re not fans of your lot.  

We have lofty dreams too, it’s just hard 
when people look at you like you’re some 
creepy skulking thing, you know?  
How dare you?  

I’m a perfectly fantastic goblin.  
I have manners.  I’m a bit different 
but then I always was.  I failed the test 
for making a racket in the night

to wake the lesser sleeping folk.  Instead
I’d leave them little gifts like bouquets of hyacinths 
at special times like Hallow’s eve’s eve.
And I’ve got my own grotto now.

All the other Gs got green-eyed about it
but I never cared much for their iron floors
and thorny walls.  Mine’s got a lily-cushioned bed
a grove for the peacocks, and the delicate chime

of yogi bells to wake me in the morning.  I sometimes feel
that there is something at work in my soul, which I do not
understand, and I may be solely the only one, but I’d rather
be alone than feel more alone somewhere I don’t belong.

_{^{© N Nazir 2022}}

Written for Shay’s Word Garden where we are given inspiration with Christina Rossetti (words used: goblin, grieved, hyacinth, iron, thorny, lily, peacocks, chime), The Sunday Muse (image as shown), and Poets and Storytellers United where the theme is quotes from scary films and books. I chose: “There is something at work in my soul which I do not understand,” from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. I decided to include it in the actual text as it just seemed fitting.