Storyteller Copyright © Kaaren Whitney 2010

'You be the Mama, I'll be the baby'
she dictates as we pattern play
full of pretend and make-believe.

'I can have ice-cream whenever I want'
she brags to the first time baby-sitter,
hoping that house rules have not been explained..

'He started it, snatched my Barbie doll'
she pouts, her face oozing self-pity,
her eyes about to loose fake salty tears.

'I read the whole book all by myself'
Daddy hears on entering the door
after a long day's work. 'Did you now, my angel?'

'Perhaps one day you'll be a novelist'
the wise mother suggests, secretly hopes
it will not be the fraud squad at the road's end.