The Princess and the Thousand Peas

 The princess was asked

To sleep in a room

With a thousand peas

Though she was accustomed

To carrots and turnips

And cabbages

She had never slept

In the company

Of peas

She was asked to sleep there

Because the castle she was visiting

Was being remodeled

And the royal family

Had forgotten

That the guest room

Where visiting princesses slept

Was still covered in wet paint

So they put her in the room

Where they kept

All the peas

For the National Pea Celebration

The kingdom celebrated

Every year

Which, at that point,

Was a mere two weeks away

Which is why

Everyone was so startled

When they opened the door

To the Pea Room the next day

To find that the princess had

In her sleep

Eaten all the peas

And was now resting comfortable

On a mattress

That had been hiding

Underneath all those little green orbs

When the princess realized

What she’d done

She was so embarrassed

Even though it is not very courteous

To put a guest up

In a room filled with vegetables

It is even less courteous

If you are the guest

To eat every last morsel

While deep in your slumber

The princess was determined

To make up for what she had consumed

And so she called on her mother

The Queen of the land next door

To call every farmer, far and wide

To harvest their peas

And bring them in time

For the National Pea Celebration

The day of what would have been

The kingdom-wide celebration

No one was sure

If the princess would be able

To come through

With her call to arms

But then on the horizon

The sound of horns

And a parade of wagons

Pulled by the finest horses

And in the wagons

Thousands and thousands

And maybe tens of thousands

Of bright green peas

The people of the kingdom rejoiced

And the princess was hailed

As truly the greatest guest

Who has ever stayed in the castle

Because while anyone

Can make a mistake

It’s how make up for the mistake

That determines

The kind of person

You are

The King and Queen of the land

Asked the princess

If she would like to marry

Their only son

As she had shown herself

To be a young woman

Of integrity and organization

But she politely declined

She wanted to keep on traveling

To other kingdoms

Far and wide

And show them courtesy as well

But hopefully

After her stomach was full

But first, she would return home

To her own castle

And her own chamber

And her own bed

And her own mattress

That was nowhere near

Carrots or cabbages

Or ears of corn

Just a princess and no peas

And truthfully

She would never eat

Another pea again

She lay down her head

And coming from her window

She swore she could still hear

The sounds of the Festival

Hundreds of miles away

And the sound of all that happiness

Helped ease her

Into a wonderful

Night’s sleep