Severity Mc Pherson

With a nod to Edgar Allen Poe and Lewis Carrol, I apologize.

This is the tale of a girl quite fine

named Severity Mc Pherson, the youngest of nine.

Not named for a virtue ( her parents could think of no more)

She got a gift one day from her Great Aunt, in a box by the door.

An egg it contained, the shell dark and spotted

with a note tucked beside it her Great Aunt had jotted.

This egg is from a bird we have found

It's neck quite long, it's body plump and round.

It's feathers are colorful silky and bright,

but it awakens at sunset, it flies from the light.

Although the feathers are handsome, glossy and sleek,

its the claws that are prettiest, the claws and the beak.

The one we had captured seemed to be quite smart,

it lived in the tent I shared with your Uncle Art.

(What happened to Art we can't quite figure.)

Did I mention the bird keeps growing bigger?

When my guides started dissapearing in the darkness of night

and the bird was so big he couldnt take flight

I thought I should leave before I was left all alone.

But the bird ,I found the next morning, had choked on a bone.

A bone about the size of a finger

(my last guide is gone now too, though he'd promised to linger.)

The bird had left in her nest an egg,

I send this to you to care for I beg.

So Severity watched the egg, and in due time it hatched

she kept it in a cage with the door unlatched.

It must have made her sisters uneasy

Prudence was gone first ( but she always was sleazy.)

Grace, Hope and Charity all left the same night.

Though they all are quite small together Im sure they're allright.

Then Temperance and Peace and all of the others

as well as the neighbor and her two bratty brothers

were gone with out notice, nary a word.

Severity didnt notice, her life was the bird.

The bird was a comfort to her during the day

when the servants and butler all went away.

Her parents went missing when she taught the bird to talk

It was too big to fly now, all it could do was walk.

The weirdest part was the pharse it repeated

"Hold your self still now, no ketchup needed."