Clown Stuff
“Put that cauliflower in the colander,
not on your head, you fool!
It’s no time now for climbing the ladder
to the loft. Come on down
or you’ll be late for Clown-School.”
© Katherine Gallagher
Submitted in response to Poetry Prompt #36

“Put that cauliflower in the colander,
not on your head, you fool!
It’s no time now for climbing the ladder
to the loft. Come on down
or you’ll be late for Clown-School.”
Submitted in response to Poetry Prompt #36

A clown with a cauliflower ear
Decided that he would appear
In a colander hat
With a cute climbing cat.
But the cat said
‘Not likely my dear.’

Cumin to my kitchen
is a warming winter soup
starring cauliflower of course
the biggest top in town.
Collected in my colander
Is my tender little troupe
but as I rinse them in a rivulet
something wriggles then rolls down
he has practiced this performance
to avoid birds and their beaks
he seems suited to a circus
he’s like a caterpillar clown

Once a climbing clown,
Clambered up a tower,
Colander in hand,
Plus a cauliflower.
What he had in mind,
No-one seemed to know
And it wasn’t clear,
How far up he’d go.
After quite a climb
He had reached the top,
Items still in hand,
He then let them drop!
Neither looked the same,
Fallen from the tower,
Not the colander,
Nor the cauliflower!
Monty says: I enjoy writing rhyming verse with a bit of humour included and sometimes short lines add to the effect. Rhyming words for ‘cauliflower’ and ‘clown’ in ‘tower’ and ‘down’ helped provide the ideas for the basic content of the poem.