The Candy Beetle
Elmer the Beetle lives in the park
Under chunks of moss and fallen bark
He lives with the other beetles
They look for food, places to dine
Under their tree, a giant pine
Under the fallen pine needles
Beetles spend their day beetlin about
Through ground tunnels, in and out
Over twigs, under mushroom caps
Each one of them weaves
In and out of the leaves
Looking for crumbs and picnic scraps
But the beetles beware
Of the critters out there
Looking for something to attack
To all the birds and slimy frogs
Lizards, snakes and water dogs
Beetles make a good snack
While other bugs look creepy or squirmy
Hairy, scary, crawly or wormy
Elmer simply doesn’t
He looks like candy with the shape of his shell
With all his colors, you could not tell
That he simply wasn’t
Threading through grass in every direction
He appears to be a tasty confection
A yummy gummy or lemon drop
When he climbs on a stick
He’s asking for a lick
Because he looks just like a lollipop
Carelessly, he strolls care free
Out in the open for the critters to see
He’s on display, clearly shown
Critters don’t want a candy treat
They want a juicy bug to eat
So those critters leave Elmer alone
One day, not knowing where he was going
He strolled by a party parents were throwing
There, he caught the eye of Sweet Tooth Paul
Paul loves candy of every kind
He’ll eat any candy that he can find
Elmer looked like his favorite kind of all
Paul stopped what he was doing
He took the cake he was chewing
And threw it in the litter
Then he swooped to the ground
To grab the candy he found.
Like an eagle grabs a critter
He tossed it in his mouth, like every meal
There was no candy taste, or a candy feel
It grabbed onto his lip!
There was a pinch, then a tickle
Then the taste of a vinegar pickle
With a crunch like a potato chip
He took a chew or two
Before he knew
That he wasn’t eating candy
It was crisp and scratchy
Grabby and catchy
Grinding in his teeth as if it was sandy
Paul threw a fit and shouted a shout
He threw up a bit and spit him out
He spit that bug as far as he was able
Elmer soared over people standing
He hit a tree in a crash landing
Then rolled under a picnic table
His legs were bent in every direction
He had a dent in his middle section
All his body began to swell
His head was numb, he had a crunched bum
He was chewed up like chewing gum
Chewing gum with legs and a shell
Bruised from his rear to his nose
He used his last two working toes
To crawl home through the dirt
There’s a bug doctor there
Who can fix and repair
Squashed bugs that had gotten hurt
He was put back together, piece by piece
Using spider tether and snails grease
Then he got wrapped in cotton worm tape
In a body cast, fully sealed
He sat under his leaf, as he healed
He had a new look and shape
Not a beetle, nor a candy either
In a body cast he looked like neither
His appearance completely changed
He was narrow, yet round at the tips
His shoulders were braced, as were his hips
A body shape rearranged
One morning, after a few days passed
He went to the park in his body cast
Bandaged, bundled and wrapped up snug
From under the leaves, he scurried out
Without kids or critters to be worry about
They’d be looking for candy or a bug
Then, just when he thought it was clear
Dogs in the park started coming near
Soon they wouldn’t leave him alone
In his cast, the way it assembled
He very much closely resembled
A doggy treat in the shape of a bone
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