Sally wandered far today, into the forest shade,

Looking for a reason so to smile;

She found a little clearing like a dark, secluded glade,

And sat down by a tree to rest awhile.

She closed her eyes and wished that people wouldn’t be so cruel,

And thought of all the sadness in her life;

How that bunch of kids would always pick on her at school,

With “ugly” taunts that cut her like a knife.

She didn’t start the fire that gave her face these awful scars,

Nor ask for skin grafts that all turned out bad,

Yet people treated her as though she was a man from Mars,

Don’t they realize it made her sad?

She looked around the clearing, one big oak tree seemed to say:

“Look at me, look close at me, there’s more;”

She rose up to her feet and slowly walked over that way,

And then she spied the tiny little door.

A door, twelve inches high or so, sat just above the ground,

A strip of light glowed out into the shade,

She gave a knock and heard a funny hollow, booming sound,

Yet something told her not to be afraid.

The door then opened outwards and she bent down close to see,

Then pushed her head in, but it was too wide;

The yellow light washed over her and then mysteriously

She somehow shrank, and then fell right inside.

Falling for, it seemed forever, yet she landed light,

And looked upon a world of nature’s grace,

A pond held her reflection but it didn’t hold it right,

It showed her with a lovely, perfect face.

How could this have happened? There was magic in the air,

She looked towards a bright and golden city,

Maybe all the questions could be answered over there,

She walked towards a sign: “The Land of Pretty.”

The flowers were so beautiful, the grass a special green,

Every tree was shaped an artist’s prize,

The sky was blue, but such a blue as Sally’d never seen,

She looked about with magic in her eyes.

A guard stood by the gate and bowed down low as she came near,

“Welcome Miss” he said in pleasant voice;

“Step inside, the truth you seek is waiting for you here,

You’ll see your inner self, you have no choice!

“The Land of Pretty doesn’t care for blemishes of skin,

Deformities are for that other world;

Everybody here is shown by what they are within,

And you look like a very lovely girl.”

She walked on through, and there they were, the kids that always tease,

But this time no-one laughed or yelled her name,

Their malformed, ugly faces looked a lot like chimpanzees,

They quickly hung their horrid heads in shame.

“The Land of Pretty” said the guard “exists here magically

To show you that your outside isn’t you,

The things you feel inside are why you’re beautiful, you see,

Remember: To your heart you must stay true.”

People looked around, a thousand  images were there,

With every building silver mirror-clad,

So no-where could they turn without the ugly mirror stare,

They walked around the Land of Pretty, sad.

Sitting on a bench she saw the people passing by,

Their ugly faces flowed past in a stream,

A tiredness then took her and she closed a weary eye,

And drifted off into a happy dream.

She woke back in the forest glade, she couldn’t see the door,

So was it all a funny fantasy?

Yet somehow, she had feelings now that weren’t there before,

She walked back homeward, very thoughtfully.

The next day she approached the school, the kids all stood around,

The usual hurtful, hateful, horrid crowd,

But this time there was something – there was such a funny sound,

It came from Sally, laughing out aloud!

Sally saw inside them all, their anger and their sin,

Their words and taunts meant nothing now she’d seen

That outside doesn’t matter, beauty starts inside the skin,

She looked inside herself and saw a Queen.

She laughed at all their faces, saw them ugly, sad and poor,

They seemed to cringe and look to her for pity,

Sally knew her life was changed for now and evermore

She’d learnt a lesson from the Land of Pretty.

more of my CHILDREN"S POEMS