Red Admiral
In mid-January a Red Admiral butterfly
flew in front of the Lygon Street bus,
past crowds of summer shoppers
and the searing sun.
Dust was rising, mixed with smoke.
I wondered what would happen to the butterfly
as it flapped and flapped around curves of air.
Butterflies are not confident
in the way a bus is confident,
and Lygon Street was no place for a Red Admiral –
all that summer traffic and not a stinging nettle in sight.
At the Dinosaur Picnic
Dandy dinosaurs dancing
Dreamy dinosaurs drinking
Dexterous dinosaurs dinking
Dainty dinosaurs dazzling
Devilish dinosaurs diving
Dozy dinosaurs dallying
Delicate dinosaurs dawdling
Book spell or how books keep me happy during the holidays
My room is always lined with books
full of adventures, animals and strange characters.
Books, they’re my friends, hiding in nooks,
giving me surprises
Before I know it, I’m caught just fine,
in the mysteries of a book.
I don’t know why I’ve got feet
when I could have had wheels,
for wheels go so much faster.
Imagine me flying down our street
not in my trainers or boots
but on wheels, with my ghetto-blaster.
Imagine people turning to stare
and all telling me to slow down
before I caused a disaster.
Imagine me gliding off into space
with a quick little nod to the Moon,
then simply going straight past her. . .
©Katherine Gallagher
Published in Through a Window, Longman, 1995)
Teacher Notes
Students might like to write a poem about something that belongs to them (for example, a bicycle, an old car, a scooter, a broom) which suddenly takes off into space. Describe the journey. Did they have any accidents? What did they see? smell? touch? hear? taste?
List everything that happened, using rhyme or free verse. Make it surprising and exciting.
Humpty Dumpty
jumped in the sea.
Humpty Dumpty
sank instantly.
All the young mermaids
and their mermen
couldn’t get Humpty
to surface again.
©Katherine Gallagher,
blazing wattle –
the splendour
of yellow
a ladybird
on the mock-orange
finds the sun
in the distance
the stillness
of trees leafing
