Bedtime Stories by Lilian Moore

“Tell me a story,” Says Witch’s Child.
“About the Beast So fierce and wild.
About a Ghost
That shrieks and groans.
A Skeleton That rattles bones.
About a Monster Crawly-creepy.
Something nice To make me sleepy.”

My Dragon

by X. J. Kennedy

I have a purple dragon
With a long brass tail that clangs,
And anyone not nice to me Soon feels his fiery fangs,

So if you tell me I’m a dope Or call my muscles jelly, You just might
dwell a billion years Inside his boiling belly.

The Gold-Tinted Dragon

by Karla Kuskin

What’s the good of a wagon Without any dragon

To pull you for mile after mile?

An elegant lean one

A gold-tinted green one Wearing a dragonly smile. You’ll sweep down the
valleys You’ll sail up the hills

Your dragon will shine in the sun And as you rush by

The people will cry

“I wish that my wagon had one!”

The Toaster

by William Jay Smith

A silver-scaled Dragon with jaws flaming red Sits at my elbow and
toasts my bread.
I hand him fat slices, and then, one by one, He hands them back when
he sees they are done.

The Moon’s the North Wind’s Cooky

by Vachel Lindsay

The Moon’s the North Wind’s cooky, He bites it day by day, Until there’s
but a rim of scraps That crumble all away.

The South Wind is a baker.

He kneads clouds in his den,

And bakes a crisp new moon *that … greedy North . . . Wind … eats
.. . again!