Wednesday 1 June 2011

Just like me and you



Dragons are lumpy
and purple and pink and blue
Dragons are magic
and sometimes they look
just like me and you

The Dragon Lady lived in a little house
with a garden full of flowers
and lots of nettles for the butterflies

Foxes and rabbits and squirrels
lived in her garden
and in the grassy bank
just at the side of her house

Behind a high fence
so they'd be safe from the foxes
the Dragon Lady kept
lots and lots of birds

They were peafowl and turkeys
and guinea fowl and pigeons
and ducks and geese
and lots of lovely chickens

Some of the Dragon Lady's chickens
were so special
that nobody else had any like them
The Dragon Lady kept them safe

She fed her birds on golden corn
lots of wheat and oats and barley
with big baths of water for her ducks and geese to swim in
and little water dishes for her birds to drink from

Her birds gave her eggs to eat
and eggs to hatch to make more baby chickens
Sometimes they built a nest
laid the eggs and sat on them

In the spring and summer
lots of chickens would sit on nests
for three weeks - or more  -
clucking and growling
until their babies hatched

Then they showed them
lots of important things to do
How to dust-bath in the driest soil
How to peck for food and how to leap
 to catch the flies to eat

The chickens were very clever mums
and their baby chicks grew big and strong
They were taught how to go inside a shed
if the rain became very fierce
and how to preen their feathers
to make them smart and shiny

The chickens and turkeys were very happy
The guinea fowl and peafowl and pigeons
were also very happy
They flew about but always came home
to the Dragon Lady's garden

The ducks and geese swam in the water
all day long - and smiled a lot
They liked swimming and eating
and running about or lying in the sun

One day some people came to the Dragon Lady's door
They rat-tat-tatted with the knocker
and frightened both her stripy cats
They muttered and rat-tat-tatted again
When the Dragon Lady opened her door
to see who was frightening her stripy cats
the people said We are The Officials
We have come to take your birds away

They looked like ordinary people
but the Dragon Lady looked carefully
and the Dragon Lady's sandy dog sniffed the air
AND THEY COULD BOTH TELL
THAT THESE WERE DRAGONS
  
Dragons are lumpy
and purple and pink and blue
Dragons are magic
and sometimes they look
just like me and you

The Dragon Lady said
Why have you come to take my birds away?
and she shed a silent tear
and her dog growled at her side

The Officials - who were really dragons said
Because your birds are dirty
See  We have a pink piece of paper
The Top Official and The Silly Politician have signed it
The Dragon Lady looked at the pink piece of paper

 
All peafowl
All chickens and pigeons and guinea fowl
and turkeys and ducks and geese
are dirty  They're dirty!  They're dirty!
THEY'RE DIRTY!!!  it said

..so these Officials can take them away
and you can't stop them  it continued
It was signed by The Top Official
and The Silly Politician  - and stamped

The Dragon Lady was very sad
Her sandy dog was very sad as well
He looked after her birds and kept them safe
from rats and Officials and Top Officials and Silly Politicians

The Dragon Lady said  Oh alright
but I'm very busy today
You can take them away if you must
but you'll have to come back tomorrow

When they left  she closed her door
and watched from her window
to check that they didn't take
any of her beautiful  happy birds

Then she telephoned her friends
who came from a long way away
just to help her fight the dragons
The next morning all her friends had arrived

Dragons are lumpy
and purple and pink and blue
Dragons are magic
and sometimes the look just like me and you

The Officials  who she knew were really dragons
came marching up her path
They rat-tat-tatted on her door
and she invited them into her house

The Dragon Lady knew you couldn't hit The Officials
who were really dragons
It didn't work
She would have to be much more clever than that

She gave them a cup of tea and a large piece of cake
They showed her the pink piece of paper
and a yellow piece of paper
and a purple piece of posh paper

The Dragon Lady said  This paper says
my birds are very dirty  but they're not
My ducks and geese bath in nice clean water every day
My chickens  turkeys  guinea fowl
peafowl and pigeons take long careful dust baths

This yellow piece of paper says
my birds have lots of diseases
but that's not true at all
They're very healthy birds

This purple piece of posh paper says
that eggs from my birds
will make people feel very ill
That can't be true

There are four eggs in that nice cake
You aren't very ill?  Are you?
The Officials looked a bit worried
But they didn't feel very ill

The Dragon Lady and her friends
talked to The Officials about her birds
How special they were
and how many different kinds there were
The Officials were very surprised

They didn't know anything at all about birds
Some of the Dragon Lady's friends were children
They said  You can't take these birds away
We come to see them and we like them

One of the Dragon Lady's friends
was a man who couldn't see very well
and he couldn't talk very much
but he loved coming to look after the birds

He talked a lot that day
and the Dragon Lady helped him
I look after these birds  he said
You can't take them away
 
Another of the Dragon Lady's friends
knew about science and looking for dirtiness
- and he wrote for a big newspaper
which everybody read

He said  These birds aren't dirty
Scientists say they're not dirty
If you take them away
I will write a story about it
in the big newspaper

Then everybody will know
that Officials and Top Officials
and Silly Politicians are stealing birds
You wouldn't like that would you?

The officials started to quake in their boots
They had to have another piece of cake
because they were so worried
The Dragon Lady said 
You can't have my birds and that's that

The Officials tore up the pink piece of paper
and the children cheered and said  Whoopeeee!
They tore up the yellow piece of paper
and the man who couldn't see very well
and couldn't talk very much said  Oh good!

They tore up the purple piece of posh paper
and the man who wrote for the big newspaper said
Quite right too  Don't you ever
threaten to take these birds away again
- and they never did

 
So the chickens and pigeons
and guinea fowl and peafowl
and turkeys and ducks
and geese
lived happily ever after
 
THE END