If your name is Elsie Babbage,
You’ve no choice — just eat cabbage.
If your name is Arthur Ellis,
Pick green beans from a trellis.
If your name is Roger Lovell,
Dig vegies with a shovel.
If your name is Charlie Cato,
You’ll only eat potato.
If your name is Betty Barratt,
You’re destined to eat carrot.
But if your name is Russel Proust,
Sorry — you’re stuck with Brussels sprouts!
It is raining in Krakow.
In Kazimierz the stones are weeping.
These old streets once knew steel and boots.
Bewildered children watched men with
beards and braided locks shuffle by.
Death rode in their eyes.
The streets lament their passing.
Who will pray in empty synagogues?
There was hope in Lipowa Street.
A man named Schindler ran a factory.
And at the Eagle Pharmacy,
kindness.
Put a stone on a grave.
Shalom.
The rat’s drum
A rat bought a drum,
A very nice drum,
And played it down in the drain.
Rat-a-tat-tat, rat-a-tat-tat,
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat.
He played on that drum,
That very nice drum,
Until it started to rain.
Rat-a-tat-tat, rat-a-tat-tat,
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat.
The drain filled up fast,
The water surged past,
And washed everything away.
That was the end, that was the end,
That was the end of the rat-a-tat-tat.
FROST IN OZ
I see icicles everywhere —
On my bike and on the stair.
Down on the gate and on the grass,
Our chooks are giving eggs a pass.
I see icicles hither and yon,
I see them hanging on Uncle Ron,
And on my mother’s washing too.
I reckon this year the frost is worse,
With icicles on the local hearse.
I’ve never seen this kind of dew —
What’s Australia coming to?
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
Colour (non)sense
Polar bears are white
so they blend with the view.
Kangaroos are brown
so they blend in too.
But my new pyjamas —
bought in the Bahamas —
are purple, orange and blue!
KICKFLIPS IN VIENNA
Vienna’s railway station,
the Vienna Hauptbahnhof,
is not just very modern —
it will blow your socks right off!
The roofs go up,
the roofs go down,
the greatest ramps in town.
As trains pull in
and trains pull out,
you can slide on down.
Achtung, achtung!
Do an ollie!
Then a darkslide,
Ja, ja, ja!
Goofy-Foot and fakie next,
Vienna’s station is the best!
Translation note: in German, a Hauptbahnof is a city’s main train station.
Australian Children’s Poetry 