"Happy birthday!"
It was one of those birthdays
Where so many people wished me a happy seventh birthday
That I lost track of the whos whens and whats
The two things that matter here
Amongst the things I received as gifts
Was the small package of replacement tyres for my remote control car
And the lamp
The tyres were smallish and bouncy
And not having my car handy at the moment
I ended up childishly rolling and bouncing them about
Until all but one of them were stuck under the orange plush couch
The lamp was from my great aunt Francis
Who had gotten it originally from gosh knows where
It looked just like the small brassy oil lamps that genies pop out of in the cartoons
So naturally
At the first private opportunity
I rubbed it
Out came a genii
Whose name happened to be Pete
Pete had this to say to me
"My name is Genii Pete
You may call me Pete
And I am here to grant you one irrevocable wish
After which you shall throw my lamp into the sea
And remember me no more"
I toyed with the rubber tyre in my hands
And thought with my seven year old brain
Before blurting out
"I want a tire just like this one
To be thrown down from the sky every year on my birthday
So I can see how high it will bounce
And every year
I want it all twice as big as the year before!"
Pete nodded his head
His little spike goatee wiggling a bit
"It shall be so
Every year on this day at this time"
And with that
A tyre identical to the one in my hands whistled down from the sky
Bouncing four feet back up in the air
Before landing at my feet
I laughed and turned to thank.......someone
But there wasn't anyone there
Just a dirty old brass oil lamp on the ground
Which I had the urge to take to the ocean pier and throw into the water
It was one of those birthdays
Where so many people wished me a happy seventh birthday
That I lost track of the whos whens and whats
The two things that matter here
Amongst the things I received as gifts
Was the small package of replacement tyres for my remote control car
And the lamp
The tyres were smallish and bouncy
And not having my car handy at the moment
I ended up childishly rolling and bouncing them about
Until all but one of them were stuck under the orange plush couch
The lamp was from my great aunt Francis
Who had gotten it originally from gosh knows where
It looked just like the small brassy oil lamps that genies pop out of in the cartoons
So naturally
At the first private opportunity
I rubbed it
Out came a genii
Whose name happened to be Pete
Pete had this to say to me
"My name is Genii Pete
You may call me Pete
And I am here to grant you one irrevocable wish
After which you shall throw my lamp into the sea
And remember me no more"
I toyed with the rubber tyre in my hands
And thought with my seven year old brain
Before blurting out
"I want a tire just like this one
To be thrown down from the sky every year on my birthday
So I can see how high it will bounce
And every year
I want it all twice as big as the year before!"
Pete nodded his head
His little spike goatee wiggling a bit
"It shall be so
Every year on this day at this time"
And with that
A tyre identical to the one in my hands whistled down from the sky
Bouncing four feet back up in the air
Before landing at my feet
I laughed and turned to thank.......someone
But there wasn't anyone there
Just a dirty old brass oil lamp on the ground
Which I had the urge to take to the ocean pier and throw into the water
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