First Find Yourself a Leprechaun
(or one-shoe-maker)

he was told, all leprechauns know where secret gold is hidden
and with some of that gold he could buy serious books,
scholarly books and soon know everything. So he listened
for the click of a hammer in the hedgerows

until, as luck would have it, he spied a leprechaun. Seizing him
he wouldn’t let go until … There’s no need for force,
grumbled the little fellow

and led him to a mouldering hill fort
where the ground glittered with gold pieces.
Take what you want but quickly for when the door shuts
it shuts forever.

He grabbed handfuls, filled pocketfuls, heaped hatfuls, stuffed shirtfuls
and piled it outside and was about to return for more when –
Wham!

The door slammed shut. The leprechaun
gone. But he was rich. Rich enough
to buy new books and used books and out-of-print-books and rare books
and antique books and illuminated manuscripts and maps and folios and

a first edition first printing of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

K.V. Skene’s  has appeared in Canadian, U.K., U.S., Irish, Indian, Australian and Austrian magazines, most recently in The Maynard (Canada), Contemporary Literary Review India, The Saving Bannister (Canada), The Stony Thursday Book (Ireland) Obsessed With Pipework and Freefall (Canada) Her publications include Love in the (Irrational) Imperfect, 2006, Hidden Brook Press (Canada) and You Can Almost Hear Their Voices, 2010, Indigo Dreams Publications (UK). Currently, she lives and writes from Toronto, Canada.