Back in the days when you still could see dragons,
At least in a circus or zoo,
There lived a sad girl in the Kingdom of Frowns,
And her name was Princess SoBlue.

People laughed there like everywhere else,
But Princess Soblue never smiled,
She stared out the windows and kept to herself;
She was such an unhappy child!

Her father, the King, couldn't do anything,
To keep her from feeling so sad;
So he sat on his throne in the dark worrying,
And wishing that she could feel glad.

The King of Frowns thought as hard as he could,
As he walked back and forth one day:
He thought he'd give anything if it would,
Make his darling daughter okay.

The King said, "That's it!" and then went and told,
His three knights to ride far and fast,
He said, "Tell the kingdom I'll give all my gold,
To the first one to make Soblue laugh!"

The knights thought the king was going too far,
To give all his gold for one laugh;
Their heads were as full as cookie jars are,
With questions they didn't dare ask.
Jugglers came juggling all that they had;
Fiddlers fiddled and danced;
All of them tried to make SoBlue laugh,
But she never gave them a chance.

Then into the throne room walked Yekki the Green;
Smoking his nasty tobacco;
He'd puffed the sick stuff since he was thirteen,
And it turned him as green as a gecko.

Yekki the Green walked right up to the King
And coughed out a little grey cloud;
He said, "Sire, allow me to try something,"
And the King said, "Okay, you're allowed."

Soblue had never seen anyone smoke,
And couldn't see why he did it,
If it turned him green and it made him choke,
Why didn't he just quit it?

"It's the cool thing to do," said Yekki the Green;
"It makes you look grown up and stuff,
And except for the cough, the wheezing, the stink,
And cancer—what's not to love?"

Smoking would make her get sick, Yekki knew,
But his heart was smoky and cold;
He cared not at all for Princess Soblue,
And cared very much for the gold.

Here, have a puff and see if you like it,"
Said Yekki to Princess Soblue;
SoBlue decided that she would try it—
Just curious what it would do.

At once to one side a lightning bolt flashed,
And a little wizard appeared;
Most of his grin hid behind his mustache,
And his chin was hidden by beard.

"Back, you green bag of smoke!," said the Wizard,
Pointing his finger at Yekki;
"How would you like to be a green lizard?
What you've tried to do upsets me!"

The Wizard then laughed and kicked up his heels,
And his laugh was as merry as Christmas;
He said,"Watch me make Soblue laugh till she squeals,
When she sees me put you out of business!"

The Wizard said, "People weren't meant to smoke!",
And stretched his arms wide as they'd go;
Then from his wand and the words that he spoke,
Came a magical tornado."
Quick as an eyeblink, the tornado stopped
And the strangest gadget appeared—
A little pipe-smoking yellow robot,
With what looked like one little ear."

The Smokebubble Robot shook where it stood,
Puffing like a train on its pipe;
It shook so it didn't look like it could,
Hold on to the string of a kite.

Suddenly soapbubbles filled with grey smoke,
Came out of its ear like small moons;
Grey wisps of smoke would rise up when they broke,
On the floor like thumbtacked balloons.

The Smokebubble Robot puffed and it coughed;
It puffed and it coughed and it hacked;
More bubbles came out its ear, drifting off,
While its legs went clickety-clack.

And while the Robot blew its smokebubbles,
Puffing the nasty tobacco,
The Wizard, to stop the cause of the trouble,
Turned Yekki into a scarecrow.

When she saw this, the Princess got tickled,
And laughed like she hadn't in years!
She chuckled, snickered, tittered, and giggled,
And her father broke into tears!

The King of Frowns smiled as he wiped his eyes,
And said to the Wizard, "Behold!
My young daughter laughs and her old father cries!,
You've earned every bit of my gold!"

Later on that night the Wizard played tunes,
Over a fire in the meadow,
While the Princess laughed at the full moon,
For casting such silly shadows.

After the two of them went home to bed,
The Smokebubble Robot stayed there;
It shook the tobacco pipe from its head,
And blew bubbles full of fresh air.

 

To see illustrations of this poem go to http://hardgrove.freeservers.com/gig/index.html

 

 

 

 

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