Wishful Tale

There once was a man who wished, above all,

to be something big and strong, like a president,

so he promised people he’d build them a ‘beautiful wall’

with a beautiful door in it.

But first he set a peculiar precedent

by rapidly building this wall

brick by brick, till it encircled

and stood slightly more tall

than himself. Oddly, not everyone seemed to notice

he was walled up in there,

that his emphatic, now slightly muffled voice,

issued from a brick chimney

along with a tuft of smoke, like a strange toupee

(and he’d forgotten the door).