Little Gabi of Grim Gradles

Little Gabi of Grim Gradles

Wouldn’t eat her vegetables.

Her mother would scold and shout,

But Gabi would just sit and pout.

She wouldn’t eat her carrots and cabbage, 

And thought of them as nothing but garbage.

She squished a pea

While thinking of her tea, 

And threw away her lettuce, 

Leaving others not knowing what to deduce.

When she was given some fat green sprouts, 

They were flicked away without any doubts.

And it was astonishing, how quickly her Asian Beans

Were replaced by long, horrible books for teens.

Then came a time when she grew rather weak, 

When she squealed if her nose was given the slightest tweak.

She kept becoming weaker and weaker,

Until she was only a little fatter than a beaker.

Her mother was worried,

And the villagers suspected she would soon be buried,

Until her parents, at last, desperate, offered a reward

For anyone who could get vegetables eaten by their ward.

Many came from far and wide, 

But none could succeed, and some almost cried.

Until there arrived a man in a black hood,

Who claimed to be a mage, and would do all he could.

That he would triumph, none dared to hope,

‘Cause if he failed, the disappointment would be much to cope.

He examined her and shook his head,

While Gabi glared at him from her bed.

Needless to say, they didn’t get along very well,

And what Gabi would do next - no one could tell.

She acquired energy through her hate, 

And dumped frogs in his bed while he ate.

Till the mage decided he’d had enough,

As he got out of his slimy bed in a huff.

He locked her fate in the worst possible way-

As long as she ate vegetables she would be okay.

But the moment anything else was tasted,

She would be unanimously hated.

She would turn into a toad, 

With the only gift of carrying a great load.

When they heard, everyone was shocked,

But none could do anything with her destiny locked.

Thus was the story of Gabi of Grim Gradles,

Who started sobbing as she ate her vegetables.