Sketching

Well...Ellie's castle seems to have taken on a life of its own now.



Not many know,
But with you this I’ll share,
That sometimes in the night
If you sit up and stare,
You can see from your bed
An amazing sight
And it’s always,
Mysteriously,
A castled delight.

Little Ellie discovered this
On that darkest of nights,
Right after her mother
Had shut off her light.
She sat up and stared
And saw all that was there,
The turret,
The window,
Rapunzel’s gold hair.

Then Ellie did see him
From the golden braid fall,
He pulled at the ribbon
And slid down the wall.
It was that silly knight
She had yesterday seen,
But this time he saw her
And said,
“Welcome, my Queen.”

Ellie giggled and said,
“Oh you silly old knight
I’m not yet a queen,
I’m still Princess tonight.
My mother still helps me
When my shoes I lace up,
I’m quite small,
And still drink
From my pink dolly cup."

“Well, that’s strange,”
Said the knight,
“For as I travelled down,
I was sure that I saw
On your head a gold crown.”
“That’s my hair,” Ellie said,
As she jumped off the bed,
And then asked him
A difficult question.

She said:

“Dear Mr. Knight,
I just don’t understand
Why I saw you before
Down there on the land,
Yet tonight you were up
On that turret so high!
If you're always changing
Then I think....
So am I.

The knight looked at Ellie,
Squinting his eyes,
And said “You’re right where you always were,
Here by my side.
Your castles keep changing
It’s nothing to fear,
Sometimes they are far
And sometimes
They are near.”

“It shows that you’re growing
And with that change does come,
Like beginning to read
Or not sucking your thumb.
At times you will be
In the castle itself,
Then that castle will change
And be a toy on a shelf.
You will say ‘But I’m sure
That small castle was bigger,
And in it were Madeline,
Angelina
And Tigger.’”

“Then one night
You might say,
‘Well, this couldn’t be right,
That shelved castle
Has changed into
My brand new night light.
It shines in the dark
When I’m scared and alone
And then glows in my heart
Like a whispering poem.’”

“Each time you’ll be right
And each time I’ll agree,
For each castle is yours,
Numbers one, two and three.
You live in one castle,
You build one of your own,
And you’ve had many more
Since the day you were born.”

Ellie quietly listened
To what the knight said,
And then she decided
To go back to bed.
She held out her hand
And the now-tiny knight
Jumped on and,
Quite sweetly,
Kissed her goodnight.
She then placed her red lips
On his tiny shell ear
And said:
“But sweet Knight,
Please do tell me,
What are YOU doing here?”