If You Stay Up Late

"If you stay up late
You might see something odd,"
Said the little old man
As he began to nod.

"See something odd," I exclaimed.
"What do you mean?"
But he just yawned and said,
You’ll see what I’ve seen.

"If you stay up late," he continued,
"you’ll see something rare,
Something weird and as strange
As a rainbow-colored bear."

"A rainbow bear?" I snorted,
"There’s no such thing!"
The old man just smiled,
The funny old thing.

"If you stay up late,
I’ll give you a clue,"
The old man said sleepily,
Nodding off as old folks do.

"Wake up, old timer,
and tell me its name,"
I begged over and over
to my everlasting shame.

"You must have stayed up too late,
you strange old fellow,
and now I’ll never know
what turned the world yellow.

But all of it was a dream
As I found out the next day
And I missed the old man
And his strange little ways.

I stayed up too late,
I admitted to myself
As I blinked back the dream
Of that sleepy little elf.

© 2006 Dana Sieben