A pretty little thing, she was,
With her bobbing tail and saucy nose,
She had big brown eyes that tantalized,
And a silken coat that glowed.

 

It was fun to chase the other fawns
And play tag and hide-and-seek,
And she loved to race the older deer
Up and down the mountain peaks.

 

With hardly any effort,
Any race she ran, she won,
The older, bigger deer ran fast,
But they always were outrun.

 

Every deer admired her,
They agreed she had been blest,
For of all the deer that ever ran,
She surely ran the best.

 

They called her "Frisky Fawn,"
Because she never tired out,
Always ready to chase and race,
And swing those limbs about.

 

Frisky Fawn ran like the wind,
No one surpassed or matched her,
Wild wolves or big black bears
All found they could not catch her.

 

Her legs grew long and shapely,
Once she left her baby stage,
Though they still called her Frisky Fawn,
Regardless of her age.

 

The other fawns became Dads and Moms,
When they became mature deer,
But Frisky Fawn never quite fit in,
With those deer that were her peers.

 

Nor was she well accepted
By the young fawns that came along,
She could run and play with them,
But she was too old to be a fawn.

 

The older deer now scoffed and sneered,
And shook their heads with woe,
What would become, they wondered,
Of this reckless, speeding doe?

 

She outran each handsome suitor
That pursued her through the trees,
She didn't mean to do that,
But she couldn't stop, it seems.

 

The thrill of competition
Was just too much to bear,
She felt compelled to run,
No respite anywhere.

 

Sometimes big tears would flow
From Frisky Fawn's soft eyes,
And she often ran with heavy heart,
Though no one knew she cried.

 

What once was deemed a blessing
Had now become a curse,
She wished her legs were shorter,
They seemed almost perverse.

 

Sad and inconsolable,
She stopped and sulked behind the trees,
But when Summer turned to Winter,
She had to run ... or freeze.

 

Odd how things work out sometimes,
When it seems all hope is dead,
For one day in the forest
Appeared a fat man dressed in red.

 

He waved and smiled broadly,
Of course, they all knew who he was,
He had come here to choose a deer
For his Christmas entourage.

 

"Ho!  Ho!  Ho!" laughed Santa Claus,
As he grinned from ear to ear.
He rubbed his hands together,
When he saw the eager deer.

 

The bucks and stags competed
To find favor with this man,
The strongest and most muscular
Pranced and danced and ran.

 

They stomped their hooves and snorted,
As big deer are meant to do,
But Frisky Fawn stood back and watched,
Timid and subdued.

 

The other deer laughed at her,
So slight of build and frame,
Just four long legs was all she had
Her only claim to fame.

 

To pull Santa's toy-laden sleigh
Required massive strength and weight,
But Frisky Fawn had neither one,
So how could she participate.

 

But Santa saw in Frisky Fawn
Something others did not see,
A peppy, playful spirit,
And a desire to run free.

 

What an inspiration for his team,
To set their pace across the sky,
Spirit more than strength, he sought,
And the tiny deer had caught his eye.

 

Oh, how happy now was Frisky Fawn,
Pure joy was hers, it seemed,
And every Christmas from then on,
She ran ahead of Santa's team.

 

This is the stuff of which legends are made,
Though skeptics may question the facts,
But trust, if you will, Frisky Fawn was real,
And this story is based on her acts.

 

"On Dancer!  On Prancer!  On Frisky Fawn!"
Santa's voice shouted out Christmas Eve,
As his team and sled with spirit were led
By a deer much too fast to be seen.

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

 

Virginia (Ginny) Ellis
Copyright December 2004