-- Seven Perky Pesky Elves --

By John Herlihy

Seven perky, pesky elves made their way to the front line;

The celestial horde lay silent in heavenly meadows supine.

The elves pushed and shoved each other as children at play;

Virtue be damned, they all were distinctive in their own way.

The Divinity gazed upon His realm in gentle benevolence;

Always decisive and always certain, He made no pretense.

God’s human creation ready to descend to earth by His will,

Into the noble, human stature seven rare features to instill.

Without more ado, seven perky, pesky elves made their way;

How they entered the human body, no one could rightfully say.

Laughing entered the mouth, crying the eyes, a whispering voice,

Hacking cough, sneezing, snoring nose, and singing to rejoice.

 Abrupt, rude even, no stopping the swift onslaught of cough,

The throat filled with murky phlegm to soothe the ragged cloth.

At times itchy, at once hacking, the cough never seems to stop;

Finally, the throat cleared, the body rejects the phlegm with a plop.

Sonorous, eloquent even, snoring sets its own rhythm and pace;

As the human gently sleeps, the nose seems to run its own race.

Yet, is anything more annoying than the raucous sound of snore;

Where do these sounds come from and why, that no one can ignore?

Snoring not bad enough, who can explain the mystery of sneeze,

That builds up deep in the canals of the nose with apparent ease.

The body heaves up, breathless, on tiptoes, arriving at some brink,

Shouting achoo! The nose expels offending dust with a nod and a wink.

Now let us merrily describe a trait as the most adorable elf of them all,

A human trait that upon no other creature in God’s kingdom did befall.

A humorous twist, an unexpected delight, registered on the face as a grin;

Laughter then emerges in fitful drafts from a deep, fathomless well within.

Now let us not forget a trait that has become the saddest elf of them all;

No other creature gives its emotion away in all of God’s kingdom to befall.

The gift of crying reaches others to share moods of its deepest sympathy;

One heart able to deeply touch another person’s heart with great empathy.

Alas, to counter-balance our human misery lies the joy of human singing,

The soaring voice all the melodies and moods of the human heart bringing.

The voice emerges from our deepest soul to reach ears and then beyond,

Back into the celestial realms reflected in the light of that distant pond.

Finally, whispering reduces the human voice to a most intimate caress;

The hush of the whisper breaks down all barriers, experiences no duress.

 Limitless love conveyed, sacred trust established, forbidden secrets told;

All the intimacies we humans can muster that only the whisper can hold.

PS lest I forget to mention an embarrassing one of those pesky little elves;

Although reluctant to say, it rests inside the body where it happily dwells.

Facts of nature have their way as gasses built within making ready to depart;

But oh what a voice, what variety of texture and tone, as they escape as a fart.

I rest my case and now better understand the mystery of God’s command;

Those perky, pesky elves within us will never deserve a human reprimand.

They each play a distinctive role in the human condition and make their way;

What we would be, how to express ourselves without them, no one can say.

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(c) John Herlihy 24 October 2018