Special October Feature: Ten Things I Love About You, Twisted Tales (No. 1)

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ANDDD...
It is upon us folks - the grand finale, the moment of truth, the pinnacle which every last post to ever grace the pages of Twisted Tales has held lofty dreams of someday scaling! If you've been following this series so far, you'll know how I've laid claim to so many past entries on the chart to be "one of the best", "one I'm proudest of", and all that. Therefore, Pick Number One should be no less than something so utterly brilliant, so magnificently thought-provoking and beautifully prosed that nothing else I've written for a full year can hold a light to it, right?
Well, you could always put it that way. Of course, do remember that the best things in life are seldom number one.
Anyways, enough with the forced suspense! Our Special October Feature concludes with today's piece, "Paper Frogs" which tells the familiar Christian message of salvation. It's one of my earliest Writer's Blocks and also my first Twisted Tales poem, but all the right ingredients were there for one heck of a message.
Each time I read it, the first two frogs remind me more of people I know who simply will not accept a very logical explanation to life and the afterlife. It's cutesy when you're able to read the poem like a "big picture" and laugh at how foolish the frogs are, but as we go about our lives from a much lower point of view, are we not paper frogs ourselves being watched by Someone waiting for us to acknowledge that we cannot make ourselves jump?
Twelve months of posting, over 200 posts, and it's come down to this - my most favourite Twisted Tales post E-VAA! Ladies and gentlemen, a rousing applause please for...

Pick No.1: Paper Frogs
First posted on 23rd January 2005

Three paper frogs
Sat and talked.
"What do we do?
Now that we're here."

"We should jump,"
Said one frog.
"That's what frogs
Do all the time."

"Why should we?"
Asked another.
"We seem fine
Just sitting here."

"I have heard,"
The third frog quipped.
"That to jump
Is to be free
For eternity."

The frogs frowned.
"How do we jump?"
"Who can we ask?"
"Why should we jump?"

"I wish to jump,"
Said the first frog.
"By all means,
I will find a way."

"Bah, nonsense."
Second frog scoffed.
"Shallow-mindedness!
Jumping because
Others tell you to."

"Here's a thought,"
The third frog said.
"Create ourselves,
We did not.
Wouldn't it then,
Be fitting that
We seek help from,
He who made us?"

The other two
Listened and thought.
"Too much trouble."
Yawned the first.
"I never liked
Chasing others.
Are there no Easier ways?
I think I shall
Seek answers
ALL BY MYSELF."

"You bunch of fools,"
Laughed the second.
"Frogs need not jump,
They can crawl.
Jump to be free?
That's funny.
HE EXISTS NOT."

Sadly the third
Shook his head.
"Very well then,
Let us part.
I hope we shall
Meet once more
And be happy
FOR ETERNITY."

With that the frogs
Went their ways.
Time passed on
They lived on.

Then came a day
All frogs dread.
He picked the three
And dropped them
In a hollow.

"Where is this?"
Cried One and Two.
"It's a dustbin."
Replied the third.

"What happens next?"
"We get disposed."
"And then where?"
"Filth, stench, dirt,
Rotting trash,
TILL YOU ROT TOO."

"No!" They both weeped.
"What can we do?"
"I'm sorry
You chose this path."

With one last tear
The first frog
Looked at his friends

"Come, join me."
A voice smiled.
First frog rejoiced
As a finger
Pressed his rear
And made him jump
Out of the trash.

Where he jumped
Happily
FOR ETERNITY.