SCHOOL FEVER
Running to school one cold wet day
dreaming of escape and running away
Visiting islands full of sea and sun
Enjoying swimming and lots of fun
Returned to reality dark and grey.
Required homework not done yet
Idiot me never a teacher’s pet
Very hard to get past this disaster
Explaining why I can’t work faster
Rewriting forever the homework set.
©
Margaret Pearce
MY DOG RUPERT
My dog Rupert¹s cool and slick
And he has a special trick:
When he hears opera, blues and jazz,
My goodness, what a voice he has!
It starts to ripple, soar and glide,
At our applause it soars with pride.
He lifts his nose and shuts his eyes
And sings his heart out to the skies.
He sings to piano, saxophone,
Bagpipes, flute and slide trombone.
The penny whistle and kazoo;
Accordion and harmonica too.
On Saturdays, just down our street
A band plays with a rocking beat.
And my dog Rupert steals the show
When he sings high and he sings low.
He sings the themes to TV shows
The news, cartoons, and all of those.
But Rupert has a secret goal:
To be a star of rock and roll.
When he performs the Rupert Rap
The people whistle, cheer and clap.
I¹m just afraid that he¹s so good
They¹ll sign him up for Hollywood!
Iceberg Identities
Iceberg beach
in southern seas –
sunning seals dream warm;
Iceberg platform –
penguins dive
in super-swimmer-suits;
Iceberg lid
on ocean pots
of squid and krill in brine;
Submerged iceberg –
picturing
unknown thoughts that hide;
An iceberg hit,
sunk a ship –
a shattered hull moans;
Sunlit castle
midnight-pink –
silent melting
throne.
Our Yeti
We went to the pet shop to buy a new kitten but ended up getting a yeti.
The shopkeeper said, ‘It eats two-minute noodles and oodles of homemade spaghetti.’
We took our new yeti to meet Aunty Betty whose pantry is chockful of noodles,
But, sadly, the yeti devoured Auntie Betty and three of her pedigree poodles.
Our yeti then quickly became very sickly. We rushed it along to the vet,
Who said, ‘I’ve seen creatures with hideous features, but this is the yuckiest yet.’
I told him our yeti mistook Aunty Betty for something decidedly yummy,
And eating the poodles instead of the noodles was giving it pains in the tummy.
The vet looked perplexed so he ran a few checks. Then he finally made a suggestion,
‘I think in the end I will just recommend an apple to aid the digestion
Then in a trice (this bit isn’t nice) our gluttonous pet from Tibet,
the big hairy brute, after eating the fruit, proceeded to swallow the vet.
Those large yeti lips then spat out the pips, some spectacles, shoes and a sweater.
And then, I must say, by the end of the day our pet did appear to be better.
Now we’ve trained our pet yeti to eat its spaghetti and noodles so no one gets hurt.
And now, if it’s good and behaves as it should, it gets to have extra dessert.
THE OLD AUSSIE DUNNY
There was an old dunny
Made out of wood,
And out in the backyard
The old dunny stood.
Sheets of newspaper
Cut into squares,
Hung on a hook —
Please use them in pairs.
A redback spider
Dwelt under the seat,
With a puddle of water
Where you put your feet.
On a hot summer’s day
It sure wasn’t funny,
If you had to visit
That dreadful old dunny.
James Aitchison
Sometimes it’s my turn
to take him to our house
for the weekend. We celebrate.
I give him the nicest titbits
And he spins and spins on his wheel.
When I take him out of his cage,
he wanders about my room.
He’s extremely curious
and sniffs at everything in his path.
But I watch him constantly
in case he zooms away.
Katherine Gallagher
(Published in A First Poetry Book, Macmillan Children’s Books, 2012, ed Gaby Morgan and Pie Corbett)
Teacher Notes: – for Primary years 7 – 11 years
Most of us have pets – fellow creatures that we care for and love.
In cities, sometimes it’s more difficult to have enough room for preferred pets such as rabbits or dogs and we may have to accept having smaller pets such as cats, hamsters and guinea-pigs.
Then again, a class may like to share caring for a pet as in this poem, ‘Our Class’s Hamster Horatio.’
Suggestion: Write about a pet you used to have at school.
Tiger the Tabby
Tiger was a tabby,
The cat that lived next door,
He’d often roam around our yard,
And show the birds his claw.
And every day, close on five,
His name was called out loud,
But on this day, when he was called,
He, could not be found.
We all chipped in and searched for him,
We all looked high and low,
We looked in drains and gardens,
On fences and below.
We looked at roofs and tree trunks,
And there to our surprise,
We found him in the fork of a tree,
He couldn’t move, we realised.
The neighbour fetched a ladder,
Then a volunteer stepped in,
And climbed right up that ladder,
To try and rescue him.
She reached the very top and saw,
Poor Tiger wedged right in,
She gently tried to lift him out,
With care and nurturing.
On descending, there was applause,
By those who stood below,
They cheered and clapped and sang their praise
For the volunteer, the hero.
They waited for them to come down,
As the neighbours rushed to take their cat,
The volunteer just bowed.
Toni Newell 29th May, 2019.
