Tommy's Playmates

I do not need to dream at night,I can so easily,"Pretending" in the broad daylight,Be things that are not Me.

Sometimes I am a polar bearOut hunting on the ice,With two young cubs the food to share,And they are my white mice.

Sometimes I am a pirate wild,With more than eighteen menTill all but two are shot and killed—Those are the mice again.

When mother laughs but won't allowThe mice in bed, I'd laughExcept that I must be a cowAnd bellow for my calf.

I was an angel yesterday,The kind that flies and sings,And so the mice were sure that theyHad pairs of little wings.

They are not yet as wise as ITo make-believe and play,But till I showed them how to tryThey were just mice all day.

For Betty Foster,1910.