A fable by Aesop, retold in ottava rima
*
“I say I’m stronger, yet you disagree!
Look, there’s a traveller,” North Wind said to Sun.
“Bet I can get his cloak off first. Just see!”
So North Wind blew till all her strength was gone.
The cloak stayed tightly on. Sun smiled. “Watch me.”
She shone. The man took off his cloak. She’d won!
For though it seems that force must get its way,
a kind and gentle manner wins the day.
*
Jacqueline Shirtliff is a primary school teacher and poet from the Isle of Man. She has had her poems published in numerous publications and anthologies, most recently Macmillan’s Space: Royal Observatory Greenwich Poetry Book. Her first poetry collection for children will be published in 2027. Jacqueline lives in a rose-covered cottage near the sea, and when she’s not at school or writing poetry, she enjoys gardening, crochet and playing the tuba and violin, but not all at the same time!
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