Amos: Melody the monarch

Editor’s note: Amos received a letter from his niece, Annie Marie (a.k.a. Mara Andrews), who wrote about her friend, Melody Monarch, and wanted to share it with his readers. Amos is a churchmouse, who types by hurling himself at the computer keyboard, but he can’t operate the capital shift, and he shuns punctuation marks – except hyphens and dashes.

dear amos

i ve been having fun

volunteering at the

little mousey school

down the street

especially with those

kindergartners uncle -

they re so cute with

their wide eyes

full of awe

was i ever

that way

uncle

but anyway

the cool thing was

when they learned

bout butterflies and

how they go from a

sad woeworm to a

beautiful new creation

which reminded

me that i hadn’t told

you bout my new

friend melody

melody is a

beautiful monarch

you see

vibrant with orange

and black wings

but that s not all

uncle

she can sing

exclamation

point here

she loves music

so much -

more than most folks

i imagine

not only does she

light on a note or two

as she hums through

her day but sometimes

she ll pause to listen

to a meadowlark

or a blue jay and

pay attention

to their tune

that may sound like

what any old joe or jane

would do but she s

always got a kind

word or two

for those singing

not like that grumpy

simon cowbird

on the bugtussle idol show

who always throws

stones uncle

one day i asked her

why she was always

so cheerful and she

said that she wasn t

always so

before she became a

beautiful butterfly

she replied

her life was full of

such sadness and pain

and she stayed

that way

but thanks to god

she s come through it

and she says

now she