Terrible Green Thing

Terrible Green Thing
by
Daniel L. Jarose Sr.

‘Twas a dark Autumn night in the town of McGroovy,
where a small little boy watched an outer space movie.
His parents had gone for an evening of fun
while he and his sister stayed home and had none.

She played in her room while he laid on the floor
and stared at the T.V. which filled him with gore.
He watched while these green things crawled out of a stone
that had fallen to Earth from places unknown.

This meteor had fallen in Washington State
and people had gathered to seal their fate.
At first nothing happened around the large dome
and soon thereafter the people went home.

But, later that night, while the farmer lay sleeping
a terrible green thing went stalking and creeping
through hallways and closets and cupboards and stairs
looking for humans without any cares.

Moving with stealth and a quickening pace
it leapt on the farmer and clung to his face.
He kicked and he screamed till he fell out of bed;
His wife tried to help him but soon he was dead.

The children all screamed with their mouths wide open.
And that’s what the green thing was secretly hopin’.
It jumped on their faces and crawled in their noses
and ate their insides from their heads to their toeses.

In five minutes time, the whole house was dead
And the boy watching T.V. just covered his head.
He turned off the set and sat shaking and frightened.
His nerves were on end and his senses were heightened.

Then, out in the yard, in the dark and the rain,
he heard a strange noise, like something in pain.
He lay still a moment and listened some more
as creepy, weird sounds came from outside the door.

He figured his mind must be playing a trick
But then he got woozy and felt kind of sick.
Gathering courage and swallowing hard
then peeked out the window and into the yard.

The silence, the stillness, the calm of the place
sent chills up his spine and tears down his face.
He settled back down and relaxed best he could,
but then he heard something like tapping on wood.

The noise just continued to haunt his domain,
he tried to ignore it but couldn’t refrain
from going outside and checking it out,
even if green things were lurking about.

He clicked on the light that shone like a torch,
then stepped out the door and onto the porch.
And, there on the ground was a small, white cup
that rolled and twisted…and then it stood up!

Placing his feet on the wet, soggy ground
he walked to the cup and slowly bent down.
“I hope this is not where green monsters hide,”
he said as he turned it to see what’s inside.

Then, suddenly everything came to a stop!
And out of the cup a green thing did hop.
Straight to his face and onto his nose
it clung there and hung there with octopus toes.

He screamed bloody murder and did a back flip,
smashing his elbow and bruising his hip.
He grabbed and he clawed at the blob on his nose
and fear overtook him as everything froze.

Finally, thinking his life would be lost,
he grabbed it and squeezed it and down it was tossed.
Then, up on the porch he jumped with a bound
and looked back to see what was there on the ground.

He couldn’t believe it, he started to laugh.
Could this be the thing that had turned him to chaff?
A poor little froggy lay sprawled in the mud,
its tongue hanging out like a cow chewing cud.

Then, picking it up by its broken hind legs
he hauled off and threw it like some kids throw eggs.
Then his parents pulled up and he knew he was had,
they didn’t take kindly to kids who were bad.

His dad got out first and then came his mom.
Her scoldings were worse than a nuclear bomb.
“You’re covered with mud; are you satisfied?
Now pick up your stuff and get back inside.”

He laughingly mused as he tucked in that night.
He thought about movies and monsters and fright.
And then he decided to turn off the set
whenever a movie could make him forget

that monsters and spaceships are not really real.
This was the verdict and that was the deal:
No more scary movies when mom’s not around.
I’ve settled that problem… “Hey, what was that sound?”
♠ ♠ ♠
This is based on an event which happened to me.