Jack After Being Up so High by Dan Plate

Jack  the boy who climbed  climbed up and stole the sun. It glittered in his palm like green eggs. It sang like a broken chicken. He brought it to his mother  laid it in her lap  and said  “Take it. Take it  mother. Make it me; and I will go and sail off to sea."

She petted it quietly and turned it over and whispered in its ear  “You are not him  you're just a pea  a green stone plucked from underneath a tree."

Now Jack  the boy who climbed  climbed up to her and said  “I will not have you speak that way to me " and took the sun and out the door and on until he spied a spinster.

She rested to her knees  part pale  part green; she wanted more than anyone should need: a boy to slip her body out to sea.

Poor Jack. The scene that followed played him out like stream on end of stream. He was blue lines by the end  worn to shimmering.

She said  “You're blue. How so?"

“You spread me thin. You witch  you cancer."

It was strange  the tone  the scream. He seemed to drip. His legs stripped  ran anywhere.
His mind turned clear  white like an egg. He jumped to fly. He died. He tried everything.

Afterwards  from his castle (this was much later)  he wondered  “If I hadn't left; if I'd left that sun up there and climbed on up that tree  I wonder . . . "

“Now Jack â€ she said (she was at the castle)  “Stop fretting  pick the greens. I've soup.
I've soup to eat  need greens."

WC@ The Linnet's Wings Story Web - All Rights Reserved: 07-25 www.thelinnetswings.org