Namrah soared through night skies,
finding his way back to the Pepperdine home.
He’d not returned for many years.
He’d spent that time in Europe,
delighting so many children,
guiding them through star dust fields
until they grew beyond what adults called
their pretend years.

Namrah is not an imagined creature.
He appears at night, silver wings softly flapping,
golden beak tapping upon a child’s window.
He hums softly, the reverse of a lullaby tune,
waking them from the deepest of sleeps.
They climb upon his back, fingers entwined in crimson feathers,
flying past Venus into the glorious galaxy.
Namrah tells them wondrous tales and listens to their dreams.

Once the elders agreed Namrah was ready to join the fleet,
Jarrad Pepperdine had been his first assignment.
He remembered Jarrad’s soft brown eyes, opened wide as they flew.
The whispered secrets he’d shared and how carefully he listened.
His job was to instill everlasting wonder and hope in children,
understanding that far too soon, they would inevitably part.
Tonight, Namrah breaks every rule he agreed to long ago,
returning to the Pepperdine’s street,
hoping for a glimpse, if not a visit, with Jarrad, the adult.

Written for Day 12 of NaPoWriMo where the prompt today is to “write a poem that plays with the idea of a “tall tale.” American tall tales feature larger-than-life characters like Paul Bunyan (who is literally larger than life), Bulltop Stormalong (also gigantic), and Pecos Bill (apparently normal-sized, but he doesn’t let it slow him down). If you’d like to see a modern poetic take on the tall tale, try Jennifer L. Knox’s hilarious poem, “Burt Reynolds FAQ.” Your poem can revolve around a mythical character, one you make up entirely, or add fantastical elements into a real person’s biography.”

Namrah is a wonderful creature I wrote about frequently in the early days of this blog. Go to the search function on this page and plug in the word Namrah and you’ll find some very early poems about this wonderful imaginary friend. Have not written about him in many years so very fun to revisit him.

Image created in Bing Create.