Month: May 2020

More news from nursery rhymes and popular tales.

The third update on my project to revisit nursery rhymes and popular stories for our Covid times. You can find the first and second updates here and here and there are links to rhymes you may have missed.

Mary went back to school and, inevitably her little lamb followed. Teacher didn’t appreciate having a lamb in class. It was quite difficult enough to enforce social distancing as it was without the distractions of a lamb in class.

In Humpty Dumpty territory there has been a rash of people falling off walls. Officials are worried by the rising numbers but the King has an easy solution. They should stop counting. It’s such an obvious answer it’s been adopted in other countries where they have either stopped testing or are not reporting numbers that make them look bad.

Old King Cole, merry as he usually is, is missing the company of his fiddlers and wants this to be over. His pipe and his bowl are all very well but somehow they don’t console him.

Poor Bo Peep feels like she has lost her youth, the best years of her life. She can’t get out and meet friends and stands no chance of romance or fulfilling her life ambitions. Hopefully, if she ‘leaves things alone’ , doesn’t dwell on how grim it all is, her dreams will come home ‘wagging their tails behind them.’

If you want to visit gran is a riff on the nursery rhyme ‘pop goes the weasel’ it points up the irony of having a little more freedom with relaxation of UK lockdown rules as long as you don’t plan on visiting an elderly relative. ‘Pop goes the weasel’ doesn’t make much sense but neither do the rules.

Four and Twenty Londoners baked in a pie is a Covid take on Sing a Song of Sixpence. The latest Government advice is to get back to work but avoid public transport. For many Londoners that’s contradictory advice leading to inevitable scenes of crowded tubes and trains crammed in like blackbirds into a pie. The perfect Petri dish to bake a virus in.

While the Old Folks die is a take on Kipling’s poem the Smugglers with it’s refrain ‘Watch the wall my darling while the gentlemen go by’. It highlights the plight of Care Homes and their elderly residents while the government have been focussed on hospitals.

Forgotten

I intended to write

but‘ve forgotten

what I intended to say.

It can’t have been important.

I hope not anyway.

It was probably something I’d seen

or maybe read

but it’s gone right out my head.

Sometimes that just happens

or seems to anyway.

I could have got distracted

been thinking of something else.

Maybe it will come to me.

Just talk among yourselves.

No! I’ve clear forgot it

Nothing comes to mind

Shuffle about

and clear my throat

write something else instead.

A response to the Word of the Day Challenge – ‘Forgotten’ https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2020/05/21/forgotten/

Peter

In memory of Peter Andrew Green 09/03/85 – 21/05/85 ‘Riddle of Destiny, who can show, what thy short life meant or know? – Charles Lamb

Born in March

Taken in May

Limp and lifeless

Rue the day.

Breathing life in you

Only brought hours

The pain and the grief

Forever ours.

Cathartic

A response to the word of the day prompt https://cyranny.com/2020/05/20/cathartic-word-of-the-day-challenge/

 

I sometimes get angry

and just blow my top.

I find it cathartic.

It happens a lot.

 

I know you don’t like it

You think I should stop

But you’re really annoying

And things just build up.

 

You’re really annoying

You must know that’s true?

Would I get quite so angry

if it wasn’t for you?

 

The same irritations

again and again.

It’s as if you don’t listen

or hear what I’m saying.

 

It bubbles on under

the anger I feel

till it all gets too much

and is unleashed on you.

 

It’s better I speak up

and vent it on you

than build up resentment

till one day we’re through.

 

If you want to visit gran

Seems like you can ride a bike

Even drive a vehicle

But if you go and visit gran

Pop goes the weasel!

You can play a round of golf

Visit garden centres

But take the kids to see their gran

Pop goes the weasel!

See your friends out in the park

Only one not several

But leave your granny well alone

Or pop goes the weasel.

Fine for kids to go to school

Back to work for workers

You can have a cleaner round

But stay out granny’s garden.

Half a pound of tuppenny rice

Half a pound of treacle

That’s the way the money goes

Pop goes the weasel.

An Understated Man

A response to the Word of the day prompt – Understated

He was modest, unassuming

an understated man.

He played down his importance

and underplayed his hand.

He was very softly spoken

and didn’t speak a lot

but when he spoke they’d listen.

His words would hit the spot.

The faint praise that they gave him

was less than he deserved.

If dragged into the limelight

he would plainly be unnerved.

A man of great potential

most of it unmet.

Hopefully his time will come

but it hasn’t yet.

Much too self efacing

modest to a ‘t’.

He much preferred the background

So we just let him be.

https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2020/05/19/understated/

Poor Bo Peep

Little Bo Peep
has lost her youth
her best years
are confounded.

She’s all alone
stuck in at home
and can’t get out
to party.

How will love come
to one so alone?
She doesn’t know
where she’ll find it.

She’ll sit on her own
Call friends on her phone
But all of her dreams
are thwarted.

She’ll leave them alone
till better days come
and the bad days
will be well behind her.

A few quick lines

The word of the day is quick

So that’s what I will be

I’ll dash something off

and make it quick

Just a few quick lines.

Slap dash, done in haste

I can not hang around

Barely stop to catch my breath

Feet don’t touch the ground.

Oh! Struggling with the pace.

Now I’ve tripped!

More haste less speed.

I’m going much too fast.

And now I’m out of breath,

I went off much too fast

Could never keep that up

Could never ever to last.

I’m pooped, I’m done

I can’t go on

Pity but I petered out

All burned out

I’ll have to stop.

A response to the Word of the day challenge – ‘Quick’ https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2020/05/18/quick/

Sad King Cole

Old King Cole

was a merry old soul

the lockdown didn’t suit him.

If this carries on,

thought the merry old soul

they might as well just shoot him.

He called for his pipe

he called for his bowl

but somehow

they didn’t console him.

Where are my fiddlers

fiddlers three

music, laughter dancing?

Strike up a fiddle

give me a song

brighten up my day.

How much longer will it be

that this thing still goes on?

I’d like to wake up

have the whole thing gone

and find it all a dream!

Humpty Dumpty Fell Off A Wall

Any resemblance to recent events is unintended and purely coincidental.

Humpty Dumpty
fell off a wall
The King and his men
weren’t happy at all.

There’s too many falling
Too many ill
The numbers are rising
They’re going up still.

All the Kings horses
and all the Kings men
Couldn’t get numbers
To come down again.

There’s too many poorly
And flat on their back
It’s clearly a problem
We’ll just have to crack.

But the King said it’s simple
Here’s what we must do
Nothing gets done
If it’s left up to you.

The numbers keep rising
Because you will count
If you stop counting
The numbers won’t mount.

If Humpty’s still broken
We’ll just look away
If nobody sees
Then there’s nothing to say.