“I am a cage, in search of a bird.” Franz Kafka from The Blue Octavo Notebooks
“What’s wrong, dear Pa, today?”
said Connor Cockroach, in dismay
and gently licked his pincers
looking more like kitchen mincers.
“Why have you changed my son?”
said father, holding tightly his gun.
“… I’ll feed you if you stay inside”
and Connor knew he would abide.
They fed him rats, they fed him mice
and Connor found the rodents nice.
He grew fat, he grew lazy — slept;
He never laughed but sometimes wept.
Connor learned to climb on walls
he needed space, not rooms but halls;
So an early morning Connor left
and left his mother quite bereft.
She sobbed a little bit (for show),
relieved she sighed “My son has grown,
— I hope he’ll find what bugs him”.
But Connor’s fate was dark and grim.
Crushed beneath a lorry’s wheel,
when searching for a morning meal,
but on his headstone it was said:
“He ate and slept, but now he’s dead”
A children’s poem inspired by Kafka for Amaya’s prompt at dVerse. Not quite like Gregor Samsa…
—-
September 24, 2019
Björn Rudbergs writings 
I think this is Kafka via Hillaire Belloc. https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/george/
You may not have heard of him – he wrote a whole series of naughty children, fantastical poems that came down to a very flat moral. Very funny.
Thank you… I think being grim sometimes work quite well with Children….
I agree, Sarah! I used to love those poems. A great idea for a future prompt!
I like the conclusion and the line about Connor thinking the rodents were nice.
This is so very funny Bjorn, yet dark too. And I cannot stand cockroaches-UGH.
I agree with Sarah about the similarity with Hilaire Bellloc’s poems. I smiled at the image evoked by the lines:
‘…gently licked his pincers
looking more like kitchen mincers’
and
the rhyme and rhythm in:
‘They fed him rats, they fed him mice
and Connor found the rodents nice.’
You nailed this prompt, Bjorn. Good one & LOL!
Oh I like this. Poor cockroach and I dislike cockroaches intensely.
Creepy crawly, the stuff little boys love. I remember the Creepy Crawly Factory my brother had as a kid. I got the Easy Bake Oven 🙂
Way to blow the socks off the prompt, brother. Your rhyme scheme was strong, and youweaved in enough darkness to please adults.
Frickin’ brilliant, dude.
a great tale for a slumber party
A good synopsis of Kafka’s take on the world. (K)
Fabulous rhythm and I happened to really enjoy the sugar-left-off ending. I think kids would think this a funny story, at least the ones, ahem, I know.
“I hope he’ll find what bugs him” love this one!