Purple-coloured jellybeans
with tiny arms and legs
will prod and poke a hole in
their marble-sized white egg.
Once hatched, they’ll grow-up hairy
and have a leathery beak.
So are they some new kind of bird
whose wings became antique?
No, no. It’s not a birdy thing.
Then could it be lizard?
No. Fur won’t grow on reptiles …
unless tricked by a wizard!
At first they’re bald as pumpkins
and lap their mother’s milk.
But four months-old, a platypus
has fur like soft thick silk.
Silvery streaks of morning-time rain
puddling into the mud
reminds me of blueberry pancakes
and circular see-through parachutes.
Raindrops aren’t teardrops.
There’s no pointy tip.
Those free-falling globules
are blueberry round.
But if they meet-up
as they fall through the sky
a middle-sized raindrop
as-flat-as-a-pancake
might suddenly start to appear.
Bigger and larger and bulkier still
fast-falling raindrops
past pancake proportions
with stretch in the centre
and drag through the air.
For less than a second
becoming a dome
these small glassy parachutes
wobble then burst
to break into
blueberry droplets again.
Celia said: I was delighted to learn that raindrops make all these weird shapes as they fall to the ground. This year I hope to receive Your Poems about the wonders of water for the Science Rhymes website.
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2009/07/how-raindrop-exploding-parachute
Cuttle Wish
Cuttlefish arms are in the place
where most of us would have a face.
Front-on they look like elephants
with lots and lots of tiny trunks.
Their skin can change its colouring
to make their bodies blend right in.
Their eyes have slits like wavy lines
instead of pupils round like mine.
Safe in their see-through eggy shell
Cuttlefish babies see quite well.
Before they’re old enough to hatch
they’ve seen the food they wish to catch!
Celia said: At birth, human babies have blurry vision. It takes a while to master how to focus on different things. In contrast, a cuttlefish’s eyes are fully developed before they hatch from their see-through egg. Just imagine being able to see all the food you want eat floating by … but you can’t get to it! Is that like having a blurred appetite?
Mice are nice
to keep as pets.
They’re quiet little things.
But when they’re happy
you can bet
your pet mice like to sing.
Their complex songs
both short and long
make each mouse quite unique.
So other mice
know in a trice
who made that special squeak.
Our ears can’t hear
their high-pitched trill.
Mice sing in ultra-sound.
But sneaky cats
will get a thrill
to hear that food’s around!
