Poems

Vanessa or the Lucky Egg

My mum told me that right inside
her tummy there have been
a million billion tiny eggs
so small they can’t be seen.

And every month they come and go,
but just occasionally
one grows into a baby
and is born like you and me.

You cannot tell which one will grow,
or what sort it will be,
there might be more than one, like twins,
or triplets if there’s three.

Mum could have had a baby Tom,
a baby Ann or Fred,
but she had me, Vanessa,
wasn’t I a lucky egg!

First Published: Early Years Poems and Rhymes Scholastic

 

Shelly’s Legs

A longer pair
you’ll never see,
they start from where
her ears should be,
and rush on down
the heady slopes
of thighs that ripple
with swimmers  hopes.

Then they slide with a bump
to the knees beneath
where gratefully
the pause for breath,
before plunging headlong
to the floor,
where they rest at her feet
for evermore.

But Shelly can perform
an amazing feat,
her house being quite near
Wittering beach,
She can sit in the kitchen
and drink her tea,
while her ten pink toes
paddle in the sea.

 

The lonely drAGON

A dragon is sad
because everyone thinks
a dragon is fierce and brave,
and roars out flames
and eats everybody,
whoever comes near his cave.

But a dragon likes people,
a dragon needs friends,
a dragon is lonely and sad,
if anyone knows of a friend for a dragon
a dragon would be very glad.

First published in: Another First Poetry Book, Oxford University Press

Christmas Star

There rose a star of burnished gold,
It moved with purpose through the sky,
It carried tidings yet untold
And watchers gazed as it passed by.

Through mists of day and shadowed night,
It filled the sky with burning light.

Published in: Another First Poetry Book, Oxford University Press

Jack Frost

He creeps through the grasses,
He’ll catch as catch can,
Cold in his bones, he’s a
slippery man.

Fingering patterns
Of spidery lace,
He’ll steal away warmth
And leave ice in its place.

Published in: Poetry Scholastic Collections

Bag of Mixed Candy

Liquorice slugs and ladybird smarties,
Lemonade wasps and humbugging snails,
Peppermint worms of wriggly spearmint,
And right at the bottom
Five fizzy frogs tails.

Published in: Poetry Scholastic Collections