That was that

 Holly and Molly and Lolly and Tom

lived in a house with a dog and a cat

They were not very sure where the cat came from

but the dog was a puppy they found in a hat

- and that was that

Tomato sauce makes mi chips red

Young John from Northwich once said:

Some tomato sauce makes mi chips red

I ‘op up the street

eating chips with mi feet

an the chip tray goes into the flower bed

His mother said: Why do you do that?

And he said: You silly old bat

I'm not carryin’ it round

It looks nice on the ground

It wouldn't look nice as a hat

She took her brave John by the ear

You know all those rats that you fear

They thrive in your litter

Please don't think I'm bitter

..but this is a rubbish bin -  Here!!!

And see all those flowers in the flower bed

Your litter hides blue green and bright red

It wastes all the work

of the gardeners - you berk

Its an eyesore that kills plants stone dead

It spreads up the street and round town

and hides the church clock - where its blown

It hangs on the phone wire

and blows up much higher

You can go and collect it - you clown

Young John said: Eh Mam that's not fair

Its not all my rubbish out there

Mi friends chuck away

several bag loads a day

That's little Tom's coke can just there

And over the road there's a pony

eating polythene bags thrown by Tony

..and a bottle that broke

was thrown in by some bloke

in that flash car that Granddad's just shown me

His Mam said: You listen our John

Its time that this rubbish was gone

Go and round up the gang

Tom – Bob -Tony  - and Chang

..and Asil  - Jo  - Jane - and Yvonne

You can wear gloves and wellies and coats

Move the glass from the cows and the goats

Shift the bags from the sheep

Ask that girl in the Jeep

to stop throwing out boxes and notes

This town is a green Cheshire place

Every time that you litter this space

it smothers our pride

in this great countryside

Stop the litter..and Northwich is ace

They weren't very happy at first

but once they had cleared up the worst

they saw flowers and grass

so they asked their whole class

to put litter in bins

especially the chip tray

the coke can

the paper

the polythene bag

that might choke ponies dead

the glass that might break

to cut paws hooves and toes

the boxes and notes

and the junk that all floats

to stop time on the clock

right up in the steeple

then..choc full of pride..

at their litter-icide

they all burst

ka-boooom!!!

And as everyone knows ‘litter-icide’ is the killing of litter.

Twelve

When I was nearly twelve

We went to the senior school

And became very small fish

In a very big school

We worked very hard

At growing into big fish

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

In another lifetime, aged 11

In another lifetime, aged 11.

That girl
So keen on pleasing all
Is not the one I came to be

She found
That she must please herself
Then let the others come to see

And if
When happy and content
Her ways pleased them in empathy

Why then
Such pleasure would be spread
To need no soft apology

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Statia and The Standing Stones

When I was little
the big girl - and her friends - took me out

I sat in the pushchair and she pushed
Her name was Statia
and she was very nice to me

We went a long way
Near the Convent where she went to school
there were Standing Stones
They were very old

Some of them were flat like tables
The rest were very tall and straight
just like people standing very still

We had a picnic near the Stones
Bread and jam and a drink of water
It was very nice

All the sky over the hill
started to change from blue to pink
Sometimes it was orange

I sat in the pushchair
and Statia and her friends
took turns to push me

We had to be home before dark
so my mother wouldn't be angry
It was a long way back
But we could see the lovely colours

The sun turned very red
As it slid away we walked along our path
Mother was at the door waiting
She was very glad to see me

Statia and her friends said
"Goodnight Christine See you soon"
Mother gave me some milk and I had my tea
Then she put me to bed

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Responsible for Me

My big brother went to school before me
I had to walk to school with him and mother

At the gate we waved and he had to go into school
He always cried when we left him
So I used to cry as well

Mother used to take us the short way
most of the time
We walked across Canada Gardens

When we reached the railway bridge
she used to pick my brother up
so he could see over the wall

Sometimes there was a train turning round
on the turntable

My big brother said if it was there or not
If it was there I could be picked up next
If it wasn't there I wasn't allowed to look

Then we walked past the toy factory
We never saw any toys though

Then past the old poeple’s houses
They didn't have an upstairs
Sometimes we saw an old person

When my big brother kept on crying at school
they said I had to go to school as well

I was only four but I wanted to go to school
My big brother had to be responsible for me
Then he didn't cry

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