Party Pony

A fat happy pony,
A happy occasion,
Combine it with kids for a happy equation.
So brightly it's colored and beautifully fringed,
The bringer of candy for children to binge,
Gracefully dances and swings on a string.
If given a voice, it would cheerfully sing,
"Come little people.
Come here.
Sway with me.
Come party out here at the old walnut tree." 

Then come children do,
But they come with a stick,
And the next thing that happens should make us all sick.
Kids cover their heads so they won't see its eyes,
As they hit it repeatedly, spilling insides. 
The poor little pony is now just a head.
It's body is mangled.
It's certainly dead.
When candy's involved,
Children do what they gotta.
Now aren't you so happy you're not a pinata?

-B.C. Byron

This is a poem about a pony. A pony with a dream of entertaining children at a lovely outside party, the first she’d been invited to in fact. But those dreams were smashed, along with the pony’s cardboard body when she learned what kind of party it really was. Traditions can be strange if you think about them. Why do we hit a colorful animal with a stick and then gather its sugary entrails into bags? Who started this violent party pasttime? I don’t know, but I totally get the appeal. I’m a huge fan of a TV show called Mythbusters. I’ve written about this show in other poem posts. The Mythbusters tested science related myths in spectacular ways. The best part about the show was when they would spend days, weeks even, building an elaborate setup of mannequins, pianos, cars, an entire house, or all the above, only to then blow it to smithereens with guns or explosives. There’s something very satisfying about making a giant mess out of something like a pinata, or if you have the resources, an entire car when you know you won’t get into trouble for it. Pinatas fill that destructive need in kids, and then rewards them with treats for doing it. I think adults should do pinatas more often to get out their agressions. I can imagine a gauntlet of pinatas shaped like mini-vans, houses, flat screen TVs, and laptops with a bunch of crazed adults running through them swinging mop handles and large kitchen utensils. The pinatas would be filled with buy-one-get-one coupons, grocery items, free oil changes, and $20 bills. Sounds much better than the boring parties we adults do where we sit at the table and politely eat finger foods and talk about the weather. Kids would enjoy watching the adults go nuts with sticks and fighting over coupons even more than adults like watching them fight over candy. Of course, the adult version of the pinata wouldn’t be nearly as fun for the poor sap who had to fill it with all that expensive stuff. Well, I’m off to plan my wife’s birthday party. Have a good night.