Forgotten Stories

Do you remember the nights?

Your mother read to you

The stories of Hansel and Gretel and the Big Bad Wolf?

Do you remember the joy they brought you?

And how they turned you into a reader for good?

Do you remember wolfing down stories like they were fodder

And your eagerness to read just one more line, or chapter or page?

Where has that gone?

Has it vanished along with the urge to read?

Do you not remember the stories anymore?

The ones you wrote on the back page of your school exercise book?

Have you forgotten Mando the Dragon and Princess Heiki?

Where are they now?

Have they gone into the attic?

Do you keep them in old crates?

Waiting for the day

You’ll climb up there and liberate them?

Will you liberate them?

Will you let them come back?

All the forgotten stories that are up there

Patiently waiting for you to read them again?

Will you answer the call and go back up there

To the forgotten stories

And read them one more time?

The Bilge Master