For a balanced diet,
why don’t you try
Broccoli-Broccoli-
Higgeldy Pie?
Buy it by the basin
buy it by the jar,
buy it by the kilo
and sing oh la la.
Everyone says
it’ll make you strong —
a buccaneer will tell you
you can’t go wrong
with Broccoli-Broccoli-
Higgeldy Pie.
Come on, risk it,
it’s do or die . . .
With the eye in the back of his head
he sees them coming —
eight-year-old breakers,
baby-hard, baby-soft.
Their elegant space-machine
could swallow him,
drown him once and for all
in a dish of air.
They are the masters —
skills bred in the bone.
He freezes
as they expect
though a voice inside him squeaks
I . ..Words cut his tongue,
weigh in his mind
like a bruise.
(Published in Them & Us, Bodley Head, 1993)
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 says: I like the note of panic hinted at in your #26 prompt. It reminded me of my poem ‘’Humpty Dumpty’ which is jokey, a cry for help in a sense, but very tongue-in-cheek. I’ve enjoyed some sessions with children in which we tried to put a new slant on nursery-rhymes.
I’m one for the window
and two for the door.
I’m three for the ceiling
and four for the floor.
I’m five for the morning
and six for the night.
I’m seven for the stairs
and eight for the light.
I’m nine for a story
and ten for my bed.
Now I’m off for a dream
to hold in my head.
(Published in Toothpaste Trouble (ed. Nick Toczek, Macmillan, 2002)
Katherine says: Going to bed isn’t always a happy time but it can be made fun with ‘ a one-step-at-a-time’ count-up. Your Poetry Prompt #23 reminded me of this situation.
I tiptoed to the window –
suddenly I could see
the stars come marching,
blinking at me.
When I woke next morning
they had gone away,
and the dark had unwrapped
a brand new day.
(From Somewhere in the Sky, Nelson Blackie,1996)
Katherine says: When I saw your cat, moon and window full of stars for Poetry Prompt #22, I was reminded of my poem ‘Night’ and watching the stars make their slow entrance, then exit.
Ho Kookaburra
can’t sing a note –
all of his songs
get caught in his throat.
Ho Ho Ho Ho Ha Ha Ha,
it sounds easy but it’s not
as he scrapes and cackles, saws away,
it’s the only song he’s got.
It’s enough to make you laugh –
that’s the one thing he can do…
Try to copy him – Ho Ho Ho Ho
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ho Ho Ho Ho
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ho Ho Ho
Katherine says: This is a fun poem when done in class as everyone joins in.
The pigeon struts
along the ledge:
he never gets
too near the edge.
Bullies
With the eye in the back of his head
he sees them coming —
eight-year-old breakers,
baby-hard, baby-soft.
Their space-machine, so elegant
could swallow him,
drown him once and for all
in a dish of air.
No use trying to rewrite the law:
they are the masters —
skills bred in the bone.
He freezes —
they expect it,
though a voice inside him squeaks
I … Words cut his tongue,
weigh in his mind like a bruise.
© Katherine Gallagher
(Published in Them and Us (The Bodley Head, 1993) and Ramshackle Rainbow (Macmillan Children’s books, 2001)
Katherine Gallagher is a widely-published Australian poet resident in London. She writes for children and adults and has poems in many children’s anthologies. About Bullies, she says, ‘I wrote this poem in response to bullying that I witnessed in a local primary school. Bullying is tragic and a big social problem; children become increasingly insecure and afraid. Sadly, they often don’t tell anyone, even parents and teachers, and this misery can affect them for the rest of their lives’.
Australian Children’s Poetry 