A HIDE FOR MY DRUM

I am a hide tightly stretched
out over a hollow wood
When beaten right,
I produce a dance-able beat
My master knows just how to get
you off your feet.
The beat is highest near the edges
and lowest at the center
Although my master never sings,
I sing so well when my master drums me happy
Him and I are the epitome of the art of music

But, someone put a hole in me one night
Someone with a blue-green envy
My master was sad
and the shock failed to sink for a few days
Pity was showered over his shoulders by loved ones
The promise of a replacement
brought a smile to his tired face
and a hope for new beats on my savaged surface
But the replacement was not a hide for me
it was a new drum for my master

I was cast away like something evil
and from the stores of old things sentenced to burning
among the rats and cockroaches
I heard him sing
my master was singing again
with no trace of missing me
His tone was soft,
his drumming was beautiful.
Something he had only done when I was new
But I was happy that he was back to his old self

My judgement day came fast
that morning unknown faces cleaned out the stores
all my rodent friends were killed
and scraps burned
I was put aside by a hand I knew too well
the owner of the blue-green envy
I had almost died from waiting for my turn to touch the flames
when it dawned on me that I was not meant for death
The monster took me away
my screams falling on deaf ears.

When my master sensed the burning, he ran to the site
"Where is my drum?!" he bellowed
A shaky finger pointed at the ashes
"We thought you did not like it any more"
"I was making money for a hide for my drum" he cried.
"He has died thinking I had disowned him."
He broke down and let his grown man tears flow
leaving tracks in ashes supposedly mine.