Category Archives: Poem of the Day
“Ladybird” by Andrew Carter
Leave a commentLady Bird – Ladybird, you look so special – swish
Floating downstream on a green slender reed
Ants cannot attack you – you sit as flat as a dish
Riding a green rush – to a family of mouths to feed
So hip, so cool, you are resplendent
Coloured red with dark polka dots
Yes you, you are fiercely independent
Seven colourful joys, joyous black spots
Now your babies are calling-out, out from under logs
They’ve eaten their fill of aphids and scale
Surrounded by dragonflies, spiders and frogs
No time to drown, no time to tire, no time at all to fail
You’re on your way with a mighty display
Your colouring to them is bad taste
Scarlet red and dotty spotty spots, say
They better leave your babies post haste
“True bugs are suckers” by Celia Berrell
Leave a commentA true bug’s an insect
but insects aren’t bugs
if they eat by chomp-chomp
instead of glug-glug.
Ants are not bugs.
They’ve got mandible jaws.
While a bug’s beaky tube
will get used like a straw.
Bugs feed on liquids
like plant-juice or blood
by piercing the skin
and then sucking, glug-glug.
Cicadas and bed-bugs
are glug-sucking guys.
But ladybird beetles
aren’t bugs – so get wise!
First published in Double Helix(September 2016)
Reproduced with permission of CSIRO
www.doublehelix.csiro.au
True bugs are suckers by Celia Berrell
“Free as a Ladybird” by Sioban Timmer
Leave a commentFree As a Ladybird
Ladybird ladybird fly to your tree
The children are screaming and coming to see
They have a big jar and a challenge to get
A most lovely bug they can keep as a pet
Ladybird ladybird fly away free
Take to the wind and race with the bee
For you are too quick and too nimble and wild
To be trapped and contained by a curious child
Ladybird ladybird fly to your den
The children have gone and you’re safe once again
The garden is quiet just you and the gnomes
Now the children have all raced away to their homes.
“Food Art” by Jenny Erlanger
Leave a commentFood art
This mashed potato sculpture
is a splendid work of art,
the best I’ve ever seen, I’d have to say
and every slice of carrot,
carved to look just like a heart,
you’ve set out in a most creative way.
The broccoli looks pretty
cut in perfect little flowers.
I love the way the peas spell out my name
and I know that you’ve been working
on this masterpiece for hours,
but I’m sorry, every night I feel the same.
It doesn’t really matter
what you do to all this food,
what handiwork you serve me up for tea.
I may seem quite ungrateful
and perhaps a little rude,
but, they still all taste like vegetables to me!
“Pat’s Cafe” by Chris Owen
Leave a commentPat’s Café
Have you heard about this restaurant? They call it Pat’s Café,
It’s famous for its specialties like ‘Dungball of the Day’,
The punters flock from far afield to try the bolognaise,
Made from the finest cow manure and slurry mayonnaise.
They do a lovely paddock pie (the critics all agree),
That’s cooked from fresh ingredients they grow organically,
And for the connoisseur there’s much to make them lick their lips,
Like cowpat flavoured fizzy-pop with battered dung and chips,
But the top dish on the menu simply has to be a scoop,
Of dung ice-cream and sprinkles with a giant squirt of poop.
Yes, Pat’s Café gets rave reviews from diners in the know,
There’s nowhere else that dung beetles with taste would rather go.
“Sharpen Up Mr Squiggle” by Jeanie Axton
Leave a commentSharpen Up Mr Squiggle
After 60 years of drawing
his nose was all but blunt
So our famous Mr Squiggle
went on a sharpener hunt
He took his rocket to the moon
with Blackboard and Miss Jane
They found a big red sharpener
and his pencils sharp again