8/19 amos

Editor’s note: Amos is a church mouse, who types by hopping on the computer keyboard, but he can’t operate the capital shift keys, and he shuns punctuation marks – except dashes and hyphens. This week, Amos and his friends have been enjoying the county fair.

jojo goes to the fair

boss the fair is great -

the flashing carnival lights

the sights the smells the

sounds and all the free food

lying around on the ground

the church pew underworld

has gone crazy with

delight boss sammy salamander

keeps trying to get in the

dunking booth and williford

the white rat wastes away on

discarded hot dogs and dried

cotton candy

jojo the jackrabbit came

in from the country boss

just to see the fair

this was his first time

in the big city and the

only reason he came

he says is because he

heard someone say

there was something

faster than jojo on

the midway

now boss jojo is the

fastest little animal

in the church pew

underworld which is

pretty good for a

vegetarian-type

i m the king of speed

the fastest you ever

see-ed says jojo as he

hopped across the

fairgrounds i ll race

the best - foxes or

hounds - but no more

tortoises or even porpoises

then he spied discarded

hamburgers all over

the ground and held up

some mustard-colored

lettuce and tomatoes

well they re a little

wilted says he but you

develop a taste for

these don t you

boss he even tried a wad of

cotton candy but just got

tangled up in it all

now where s all this

speedy bullet stuff

says jojo i m ready

to run i m ready to go

so we showed him the

himalaya with its

fast track and zooming

cars and the tilt-a-whirl

with its tornado

spinning action

these are machines

says he not even human

beings but they sure do

run fast don t they

then boss we saw his

eyes light up

maybe i can get even

faster with the help

of these machines

says he soon i ll be

the fastest in the plains

the quickest in the land

fast as greased lightning

or a flash in a pan

with that he hopped on

the himalaya and went

round and round faster

than the speed of sound

when jojo wobbled off

frazzled and wore we all

gathered around him to

implore how are you jojo

are you faster than you

were before

naw i don t think so

says he the wilted

lettuce and tomatoes

kinda turned me green

i think i ll just go

home and enjoy the

country scene being

so fast is not worth

being green

sometimes life is like

what jojo learned boss -

you may not really want

those things for which

you wish and yearn

amos