News Poetry Prose Cartoons Photos Author

Portrait of the Artist as a Lone Tree

Family

Contents Page 45About

Nursery: no rhyme, no reason

Click to hear (.mp3)


Oh golden head that lies upon the bed,
why worry so?
Mother and father make your world complete.
What makes you shed your tears upon the sheet?
O where will blame for all your woes be laid?
Surely for good of all the rules were made -
protecting children, everyone counts dear.
How, in this day and age, could you know fear?

But everything that e'er was meant to be
a guard upon your innocence and joys
was muddled up by meddlers who see
their twisted interests served through girls and boys.
All their deliberations serve you ill -
proclaimed by fools who rule in wigs and gowns.
Who will lay down their life for Jack and Jill?
Who will restore their games, and broken crowns?

(Based on experience; tragically confirmed to be more generally true by readers. Some may find it hard to think this is how things work; but it's a lot harder for the children involved. Being too horrible to contemplate doesn't mean that a thing isn't true.)


Site, poetry, prose, images and audio © 2003-2024 Dave Knight except where otherwise attributed. All rights reserved. The right of Dave Knight to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988