Out in the wilds
the daylight is dying;
the darklight is coming,
and the wind is a-sighing.
Shadows will deepen,
grow darker and soon,
with the quiet starlight,
will come the moon.
The pastures will sleep
and not waken till morn,
when at last the sun rises
and a new day is born.
North Island, New Zealand. Photo by Ginette Pestana
Word is a word
that rhymes with word.
But what about cord,
and ford and sword?
They don’t rhyme with word,
as you’ve no doubt heard.
How come English is so erratic,
so hard to learn and problematic?
My word, I wish I knew!
Photo from Pexels by Pixabay
Beetrice is all abuzz
A busy buzzing bee
Busy as a bee can be
Her home inside a tree
Shall we look and see
What she really does?
The busy bee she needs to be
Aside from all the buzz
Deep within the hive
She works her busy legs
Taking care of ‘Queenie’
While she lays more eggs
Lots of little larvae
Needing to be fed
Making sure each one has
A share of sweet bee bread
Working waxy wonders
Rooms with walls of six
Holding strong for so long
There’s no need for sticks
A fussy, clever cleaner
She keeps a spotless home
Life’s such a buzz within
Her world of honeycomb
But beware of Beetrice
Best to let her be
Show respect for her place
A home inside that tree
Should it be disturbed
The hive a bee defends
She’s got quite a sting
And so have all her friends
Lots to do in Summer
Young ones can’t get hot
Busy Beetrice fans her wings
Or else they’ll lose the lot
United with her sisters
Workers make a breeze
Cooling down bees to be
Together done with ease
Foraging for nectar
Changing it to honey
On the wing from dawn to dusk
While the days are sunny
Visiting the flowers
Beetrice never stops
She helps feed our nation
By pollinating crops
What a wonderous worker
A busy buzzing bee
Without busy Beetrice
Where would we be?
Could she understand
What bees do for us?
She’s probably too busy now
Too busy for a fuss
Busy buzzing Beetrice
Thank you for the honey
To have on buttered toast
Golden, sweet and runny!
And for tasty fruit
You work away for hours
There’s apples, pears and cherries
From pollinated flowers
We are so grateful
For treats such as these
May there always be
Busy buzzing bees!
Photo from Pexels by Pixabay
When did we start
having so much stuff?
To go without
would be cold and tough.
Two-and-a-half
million years ago
a few stone tools
was all we could show.
Three hundred thousand
years before now
we’d arrows and spears
and fire knowhow.
By seventy thousand
an Ice Age had stressed
those poor chilly humans
and made them get dressed!
Image from Pixabay
If you’re a fish and you get sick,
who do you go and see?
The Doctopus will help you —
he’s your undersea GP.
He’s qualified to treat
watery infections,
and because he has eight hands,
he’ll give you eight injections.
From sore sardines and sneezing sharks
to tonsil-troubled tuna,
the Doctopus will fix you —
you’ll feel much better sooner.
Photo from Stockcake
The mighty ramparts rise above the plain,
where once the plains were sea.
And you might think how harsh it looks,
yet beautiful it seems to me.
A world of red soil, stone and silence,
of ancient legends told ’round fires,
of peace and fascination
to my tired city eyes.
Flinders Ranges, South Australia. Photo by Ginette Pestana
Old kangaroos with worn-down teeth
cannot get any nutrition.
They sense they will die, so their final hours
are driven by intuition.
Their know hollow trees
are their best safe havens,
to save their eyes
being pecked out by ravens.
The lucky roos will die in peace,
sheltered inside a tree,
beyond the reach of enemies
who would feast on them with glee.
Such is life in the bush —
relentless, wild and cruel,
a never-ending circle
of life, death and renewal.
The Cazneaux tree, Flinders Ranges, Australia. Photo by Ginette Pestana
A girl named Amelia Hicks,
Went to Discount Day at the flicks.
She sat right through Jaws,
Halloween and Star Wars
For a cost of Sixteen Sixty-six.
Image from Pexels by GEORGE DESIPRIS
May the twelfth is Limerick Day,
So I thought I’d better just say,
Limericks are fun,
Have a go at one,
Grab your pen without delay!
Image from Pexels by picjumbo.com
Australian Children’s Poetry 