Fairy Tale Submission

To preface this piece:
Just the other day, my beloved sent me over a quite unique craigslist job offer.
It was a freelance poetry and writing job- mainly of Fairy Tales for children.
All all of a sudden, all of the loose puzzle pieces in my head snapped gently into place.
They asked, of course, for a submission to gauge whether the applicant would bring what they are looking for. Below is my submission.

What exactly is a "Fairy Tale," you ask?

A Fairy Tale is a bit different from Fairy’s tail: Not all Fairies have tails, but all Fairies do have stories. That’s what a tale is: A story. 
And Fairies seem to have a whole lot of them.
Have you ever wondered why this is?

Well you see, Fairies dance back and forth between two different worlds: 
The world that they come from, 
and this world. 

Fairies do not have the same sort of magic powers as say, a witch, wizard or sorcerer. They do not cast your normal, every-day spells. Instead, Fairies are able to visit two different worlds, all while remaining unseen by humans.
…Oh yea, and Fairies can fly!

 By remaining unseen, 
Fairies acquire so many stories to tell. 
Fairies spend much of their time observing…
…And playing of course!
How do I know?
~I am a Fairy~
I am Sappho, to be exact: the Fairy of Words and Poetry,
and it is nice to meet you.

I would like to tell you the tale of how and why Fairies came to play on planet Earth.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We, the Fairies 
Have known about your world for some time now.
We watched the first flowers bloom,
Saw the first cloud in the sky,
Your first beetle, bird and mushroom,
And as more time went by,
We met you.

We were excited, you see, 
For you humans were the first species to walk the Earth
Who were able to perceive Her beauty,
Able to feel things,
Like excitement and Love.
Able to do things,
Like run and jump and play.
You were the first species on Earth
With the ability to become inspired,
And then take that feeling of inspiration and turn it into art.
Art is anything and everything you do in a state of Love.

For a long time,
All was well on planet Earth.

Until one day, when all of us Fairies were called to meet. 
We received a message from our dear friend, Earth,
Who sounded quite a bit offbeat. 
She told us many humans had forgotten,
About her, why they were there
Forgotten love and inspiration, 
Causing Her to feel despair

She said, one day, a human looked over to his neighbor,
 And said to himself “Hey, they have more ‘things’ than me.”
So he went home and created much out of labor
Not with love, but out of greed and jealousy.
Though, if this human had taken time to ponder,
He’d have known, that all of the “things” his neighbor owned
Would not make him any fonder 

The man already had love,
But instead of feeling blessed for what he did have,
He focused on what he didn’t.
And that made him unhappy.

So the man made more “things,”
But they were not art;
 They were made for the wrong reasons
They were made without his heart.
When he was done, he bragged about it to his neighbor, 
Who then caught his jealousy, and made more “things“ in the same favor.
They spent their time in competition,
Time they used to spend playing on the grounds
Now stuck in fruitless repetition
Their distraction spread across the towns
The neighbor told his neighbor,
And they all made “things” too,
And their jealousy grew greater,
And so the “things” they made grew too.
They made bigger houses, bigger cars,
Bigger lots so they could park.
They built stores and they built malls,
And around themselves, they all built walls.
They became so distracted, that over time,
They forgot to go outside.
That is why, in us, the Earth chose to confide.

She said;
“Oh my dear loving fairies, 
would you help me please?
These humans are covering me in concrete!
These people, it seems,
Are not thinking of me
And I’ve lost some feeling, 
like you do when your foot falls asleep
It’s like having an itch that you just cannot reach
Would you come and visit me please?
To whistle with the birds and play in the trees?
Could you try and make the humans see,
That they would be happier if they played with me,
If they stopped to feel my gentle breeze,
If they got rid of their “things” and lived more simply,
Would show them the beautiful creatures that they started out to be?”
And of course, we agreed.

Now, don’t get us wrong:
We know that many humans love very much
We haven’t forgotten you all along,
Those who give Mother Earth your gentle touch.
Many beautiful, wonderful spirits,
Who are loving, through and through,
Who say hello to Earth, and she can hear it!
Many magical creatures, just like you.

You may call us friend
And though you may not see us,
We’ll support you without end.

If you’re quiet, you can hear our lovely Fairy chorus,
Of peeping crickets, rustling leaves,  in the tiny sounds of the forest.
In the nooks and crannies of the Earth is where we spend our nights and days,
Among the twigs and pebbles is where we love to play.
Bouncing beds of cushy moss,
Dancing on fresh winter frost,
Sunbathing on leaves of maple and oak,
And of course, we love to play the occasional joke.
Like if we see a human get too attached to their “things,”
Be it clothing or toys, hats knickknacks or rings 
We flutter in when we know we’re alone,
And take the “thing” back to our Fairy home.
After we study it for a moment of two,
Worry not; we will bring it right back to you.
You see, the joke is quite simple, we like it a lot,
It shows that you can be happy, 
Whether you have “things” or not.
<3