Amos Obadaiah

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When I was a camp counsellor, I loved to spin stories about my supposed adventures to entertain my campers. One of my favourite characters in these adventures was Amos Obadaiah, a singularly grumpy old dragon. He's shown his face a few times in stories I've written since, but this is the first time he's managed to get his very own poem. I'm sure he is not grateful in the least.

Amos Obadaiah
Amos Obadaiah is a sort of friend of mine,
But of course I'd never say that to his face.
He'd rather not be friendly. He'd rather not be kind.
In fact, I'm sure he'd think it a disgrace.

Amos Obadaiah is a grimmy sort of grouch.
He's a griper and a grumbler and a grump.
He's a gristle-ated grizzum with a surly sort of slouch;
He's a fire-breathing pain in the rump.

"I'm a dragon!" rumbled Amos Obadaiah when I asked.
"I'll be fearsome as I want in my own den!
People think that they can tame us, slay us—Ha! Now there's a task!"
Then he laughed so long I never asked again.

Amos Obadaiah met a hero by and by:
Handsome face and glimsome sword and gleamsome smile.
And I guess that he was brave to look a dragon in the eye,
And to call him "lizard", "beast" and "crocodile".

Amos Obadaiah glared and glowered, growled and gruffed,
And observed, "His clothes won't be much fun to eat."
Then he breathed a little flame and very gently huffed and puffed,
And he burned the pants right off that hero's seat.

"Aie!" exclaimed the hero while his cheeks were growing red.
"You've burnt my favourite pants, you dragon, you!
They even matched my sweater!" "That's too bad," the dragon said,
And he very calmly burned the sweater, too.

The hero shrieked and shuddered and he muttered it was chilly
As he skitter-scatter-scrambled to the door,
And he ran off with no clothes on, looking absolutely silly
And his grin was not so gleamsome anymore.

"Nice!" I yelled, but Amos Obadaiah turned and glared
So fierce-ishly I swallowed up my shout.
"Um, good job," I told him, speaking just as loudly as I dared.
Then he ordered me to sweep the ashes out.

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Amos Obadaiah by Erin Woods is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.