Gingerbread Regret

Chinaberry Edwards lies in bed,
trying not to dream of men in white coats with
lipless smiles and cold hands.
Trying not to dream of that place that was no place for a little girl.

She gets out of bed,
taps on the emptied fishbowl.
Then she realizes -
her gingerbread friend is gone, he had been gone for a while.

One day, after her mother had baked gingerbread cookies and left the room,
she saw them sit up and start talking amongst themselves.
Fascinated, she vowed never to eat another gingerbread cookie
until she realized they were terribly dull creatures
with annoying voices besides.
All except one.

Ferdinand liked to discuss philosophy
and recite the works of Walt Whitman,
but only when adults were outside of the room.

So when everyone else started eating the cookies,
Miss Chinaberry scooped up Ferdinand and carried him to her room.
She kept him in a fishbowl that used to be home to her two fish,
but she went to the park and poured out the fish into the pond.

Everything was going great
until Ferdinand started to crumble.
He trailed crumbs all over the glass floor of the bowl,
and Chinaberry knew glue couldn't fix him.
She knew tape couldn't fix him.
She knew the eccentric little atonal melodies she sometimes sang to him couldn't fix him.
Her tears slid down the curved glass
as he became more and more lethargic;
until he finally split into three pieces.

She took him to the same park she'd released her goldfish at
and fed him to the fat little birds with friendly eyes,
as per his request.

The doctors had an explanation for everything
except why Miss Chinaberry was so well versed in Walt Whitman's poetry.

--
You'll never guess what influenced this poem. ;]
And comments are what are bringing sexy back.
Justin Timberlake is totally jealous.