amos the churchmouse: j sterling seeks his fortune

amos the churchmouse:a view from under the pew

Editor's note: Amos is a churchmouse, who types by hurling himself at the computer keyboard, but he can't operate the capital shift, and he shuns punctuation marks - except hyphens and dashes.

j sterling seeks his fortune

boss i don t know if you

remember a little brown

squirrel here in the church

pew underground his name

is j sterling squirrel

j sterling is a pleasant

fellow very polite for a

squirrel - you know what

notorious scroungers

squirrels are boss - but

he s somewhat sensitive

in fact if j sterling

doesn t approve of what

you re doing or saying

he ll whip out his packet

of multicolored sticky-notes

and write you up and file

it away somewhere i guess

where he stashes his acorns

for example boss

he wrote up a sticky-note

on sheila squirrel when she threw

some acorns at him the other day

and he wrote up one

on lisa linx when she hissed at him

and then there was the time he wrote up

two sticky-notes on hurley the

huffy cockatiel when he

was making all sorts of

strange noises and imitating all kinds

of animal folk

well something snapped

in j sterling yesterday

boss he up and announced

that he was off to seek

his fortune and he wrote us

all a good-bye sticky-note

it was all very sad to see him

gather up all his acorns his packet

of multicolored sticky-notes

his x-files ditty bag and leave

i m off to see the world

says he to sheila squirrel

life in bugtussle sure

hasn t been a whirl

what do you plan to do

without being around ourchurch pew

says sheila

i m gonna be rich i ve got

the itch to make a name

and stake a claim to fame

and fortune says he almost deliriously

just then boss ollie owl

swoops down from his

tree in the clouds and says

you sound just like the

preacher in ecclesiastes

oh yeah says j sterling

did he get rich or get to be king

as a matter of fact

he did says ollie owl

and he wrote about how

he did it and why andthat

it means nothing when you die

vanity of vanities says

the preacher all is vanity

it ll be different with me

says j sterling a little

more thoughtfully

i ll be rich but i ll be a smarty

you ll see says he i ll be rich

and life will be a party

that s what the preacher

said says ollie and he had

the wisest head of all but

he concluded that death

comes to one and all - so

what good does it do to

get rich to build kingdoms

or to sit and drool

it sounds like there s no

hope for a squirrel like me

says j sterling seriously

oh but you re wrong says he

there s joy meaning and

victory to him who sets his

sights on god above and lives

his life in jesus love

and boss j sterling nodded

his head and said i think i ve

found the end of my quest to

have a life filled with zest

it s joy in jesus life s a fest

you live it to the fullest and

pass its tests then it s on to

glory where life is really blest

amos