Trixie's Lesson

There once was a pixie named Trixie

Who loved to trick people all the time.

She didn’t care who her victims were

Despite knowing pranking was a crime.

The Queen of the Cornish Pixies

Declared pranks illegal after the fight

They fought in the early nineteenth century

With humans on one cold June night.  

Trixie would keep the pranks simple

Making sure no one could detect her.

She’d unscrew the diner’s salt shakers 

She’d switch all the salt and sugar. 

Then there were those warm days and cool nights

When the old school trickster in her wanted to play.

Girls ran from their boyfriends, livid with anger

Or crying without knowing what to say. 

Little boys got sore red bums from their moms’ hands

Little girls got grounded for breaking dirty dishes.

Mothers argued with fathers about missing money

Fathers lost gifts for their birthday wishes. 

Halloween and April Fool’s were the best holidays

For tricking and pranking as many people as she could.

It didn’t matter that everyone was pranking each other

What mattered most was that she tricked them all good. 

After years of the pixie world hiding from humans

Trixie, the pixie, was so bored she was busting at the seams.

She needed to have fun and to make others laugh or cry

She needed to wake people from their comfortable dreams.

The morning of April first came faster than expected

With the sun shining brightly, dew stuck to the ground.

Trixie took all year to prepare for the ultimate prank

by gathering intel on everyone she found. 

She spread rumors about the village folk

Making the silly adults fight.

So she could trick all the children

Into following her into the night. 

The small children were delighted

By Trixie’s green garments and blue skin.

It was easy to sneak them out

While the adults fought about love and sin. 

“Come with me young ones to the trees

Come with me if you please.

I’ve got candies and sweets

I’ve got chocolate-covered treats.”

All the village children followed

Ignoring the tales of the pixies.

The children skipped all the way

Through the woods towards Trixie’s.

By the time they got there

The white sun was peaking.

There was singing and dancing

No need for speaking.

The children danced and played

Listening to music all day long.

Trixie snuck back to town

Checking if anything went wrong. 

As she suspected, happily

The parents were beside themselves.

Searching for their babies

In closets, under all the beds and shelves. 

Trixie laughed and she giggled

As she watched the parents call out.

Hidden, she grinned into the light

As she heard them scream and shout. 

Satisfied, she traveled back to her home

Where the children feasted on sweets.

Satisfied, she danced and sang for them

As they devoured all their treats. 

Once the food was all gone 

And the sun retired,

Trixie brought back the kids

All hyper and wired. 

She sent the children to their homes

With upset stomachs and cold hands.

The parents held their babes tightly

Ordering them with quick demands. 

Demands to tell them where they were

And who had taken them all day long.

The children told them nothing

Keeping their promise and broke out in song. 

“Today is the day for laughing

Today is the day for jokes. 

Laugh at the teachers and caregivers,

Laugh at all the grown folks.

“For all you do is fight and work

For your own selfish ways and needs.

You don’t care who it hurts

Ignoring us for your trinkets and beads. 

“We won’t listen to the old mouths

We won’t listen to the old ways.

All you do is argue and complain

Now is the start of new days.

“We will listen to the sun

And we will listen to the moon.

Nothing our parents say

Will matter until the end of June.”

Trixie taught them this horrid mean song 

To torment their parents further.

Each parent needed to be taught

How to be a good mother or father. 

The song did its trick

The parents wrung their hands. 

Not sure what they should do

As their children took their stands.

The children stayed up late

Expended their energy until midnight.

When they cried out to their parents

“Happy April Fool’s Day”—what a sight!

The relief on their parents' old faces

The glee on that of their kids’

Was enough to send Trixie home

Happiness glowing from her eyelids. 

But it didn’t last the way she had hoped

Remember, the elders considered pranking a crime.

Trixie explained that teaching the humans lessons

Would be a good reason for the pranks this time. 

Once the holiday was done

The elders brought Trixie before everyone.

“What shall we do with you, Trixie?

You’ve been a very naughty little pixie.”

“Do with me what you will, for I did good.

Their parents needed to be shown

That what they were doing was evil

They needed to be knocked off their thrown.

“I taught them what matters.

I showed them what they could lose.

I gave them a taste of life 

A life they wouldn’t choose.

“Now they will treat their children right

Love them proper, and hold them close long into the night.

Don’t punish me, don’t punish us.

What we do isn’t righteous, what we do is right.”

The pixies did muse in silence

As they listened to Trixie preach.

They agreed with her reasoning

They also had lessons to teach. 

The Queen of the Cornish Pixies

Held up her hand for everyone’s attention.

“Trixie has spoken words that are true.

We will deal with the humans in celebration.”

The pixies tortured those poor humans

Until Pixie Day did come in the middle of June.

The children taught their parents how to behave

With the pixies telling them, it will end soon. 

Trixie didn’t get into trouble

She wasn’t charged with any crime.

The queen changed all the laws

Saying it was for the good this time. 

From that day forward on every April Fool’s

All the humans from town remembered Trixie

By making their parents laugh, giggle or cry

The same way as would any little pixie.