*Use at least five of the following ten words in a single poem: strange, firefly, bottle, cottage, heat, mask, zoom, treeline, porridge, lethargy

Stranger Danger

Don’t pay the ferryman
in this fairytale
that strange one will carry
you to death.

A firefly in a bottle
may light up the wattle
of this odd cottage
but no heat from within will be spent.

Zoom in on the bears at the treeline
as they approach the cottage from afar:
don’t eat the porridge, or lethargy
will certainly lead to death.

A mask on a stranger
will not save you from danger,
hi-yo, silver coins for the ferryman
cannot avert tears of Lethe.