The trolls under the bridge have always tolled, or so I’m told.

/ Doug Jacquier

This piece was written for the weekly Unicorn Challenge to respond to a photo prompt.

They’re there, I swear, with their hare

and it’s moth-eaten hair

and it’s more than I can bear,

so bare-faced, it’s not really fair

to charge a fare, a troll toll.

I must complain to the Mayor

next time he rides by on his mare

paring the first of his pair of pears.

I’ve a mind to tear up their demands

to be paid by tare weight

but I know it will end in tears.

I have to pass to vend my wares,

because where’s the alternative?

It’s enough to make man ail

and to take a pint of ale

(but if I have two, I’ll pass out in the aisle)

especially now the price of sealing wax

has gone through the ceiling.

It’s enough to make me desert this idyll

and live in the desert instead;

Take a plane

and live on the plain.

Oh, had I the courage

to recruit some guerrillas

to stand up to these gorillas

and barbecue them on the griller.

Yea, is it not a Gordian knot,

not to mince words

sweetened with mints?

You may roll your eyes

but it is not my role

as a sole soul

to wring the necks

of this ring

and leave my family mourning

come the morning

and have my fair maid made a widow.

I must succumb to these blackguards

ere I become thin air,

for this band will ne’er be banned.

So I have to choose

and I chews my tongue

and pay the toll.

15 thoughts on “The trolls under the bridge have always tolled, or so I’m told.”

  3. eruditle* fun as we all have come to expect!

    Not for nothin’ and totally unrelated: trolls, imo, were among the most frightening of creatures that parents, down through the ages, have employed to traumatize the young into being good citizens.

    * not a ‘real’ word

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  5. Word fun par excellence!
    I’m not sure about meaning- I just got carried along by the change and interchange of language and rhymes.
    That’s meaning enough.
    (Unlike Ladysighs, if I reread, I may discover I’ve missed a deep and meaningful truth…😉

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