literature

The Bleeding Ibis

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Literature Text

That one summer has gone,
From long ago
When the ibis sat in the bleeding tree.

Its wonders have faded,
Its bark has dried up,
And a block of grindstone now stands in its place,
Where the bleeding tree once stood.

I remember the time
Long ago
When the bleeding tree still lived,
And my only brother-type was born.

I was six at the time,
When my brother was born
And my life was filled with joy.

When I first saw my brother,
It was quite an odd site
For he was mostly all head,
Deformed at birth.

My family started crying
They thought he would die,
Even though he was born in a caul.

So we built him a coffin
And named him William Armstrong
They thought it would make
A fit headstone name.

But we were wrong,
He lived indeed
I had hope in him yet.

As the days went on
His name just wouldn’t do
So I called him doodle
Because he crawled like a doodlebug.

I was happy, yet sad
Because he couldn’t swim, walk, or run.
He was about to go to school,
And he still couldn’t walk
And I got tired of hauling him around,
In a little go-kart.

I took him to my favorite place,
Called old woman swamp,
To teach him to walk.

We kept it secret
Until he could walk
And finally one day he could.

We showed the family
They were so happy
I didn’t know why
But I felt really sad.

Next it would be swimming
Then it would be running
And last it would be climbing and fighting.

I started real fast
At old woman swamp and a pond
To teach him these
But he was struggling really bad.

I got him rowing
And at least walking fast
But he just couldn’t do it.

Then one fateful day
The ibis sat in the bleeding tree
It looked as if something was wrong
It looked very sick.

Then it charged at us
Flying through the air
But, before it could get to us
It fell to the ground.

My dad checked it out
To see what was wrong
But obviously you could tell
This scarlet ibis was now a dead ibis.

Doodle picked it up with a shovel
And took it to our flower bed
And started to bury it
We didn’t know why he was doing it
It was just some bird with who knows what kind of diseases.

Then one night a huge hurricane came
Thunder roaring, lightning striking
Doodle and I were out in old woman swamp
When the storm hit.

We raced to get home
When I noticed something
Doodle was moving faster than ever.

I thought this swell
To use his fear as his teacher
To get him running fast.

I broke into a sprint,
Not looking behind
All I could hear was doodle tripping and yelling,
“Brother don’t leave me.”

After a while I stopped and waited
But, no sign of doodle.

So I ran back to see
What was taking him so long?

I finally found doodle
Hunched next to the bleeding tree
I said, “Doodle lets scadaddle”
But there was no reply.

So I lifted his head and began to cry
He was bleeding from the mouth
And staining his shirt.

I knew it was over
He had failed the test.
I made this poem back in high school which summarizes the short story by James Hurst called: "The Scarlet Ibis." It is a good story, yet sad story.
© 2005 - 2024 Muddtoad
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Yes it is a sad story, but it teaches some important values.