GRUMPS TO ANDREW – NONSENSE VERSE No. 4

Life just now is very jolly
Haven’t got a lot of ‘lolly’ –
Why this should be I cannot tell,
The primulas are doing well;
The Spring is rising all around
With coloured flowers on the ground,
The sky is blue and very proud
Pushing the sun from cloud to cloud –
How this can happen in December
I no longer can remember
But if it is not so right now,
Keep on hoping and that’s just how
Dreams can come true
And if you want to see them through
Just choose a colour, and the dream
will fit into a colour scheme.
Like you favour blue
And yellow flatters me
So you prefer to live near Crewe
And I near Battersea.

I’d like to sing the songs of Spring
With a voice both loud and clear
To remember what it can bring
But can’t recall which year.
Now let me see
What shall we have for tea?
Some of Oma’s scrumptious cakes
And the scones that Mummy bakes?
All the good things piled up high
Ice cream, jelly and gooseberry pie.
Stay cool dude, when the pressure’s on
All the food will soon be gone.
And that is nearly that I fear
Can’t go on forever here
There is dusting to be done
Necessary, but not much fun.

And now you’ve finished all your tea
Let’s end with some philosophy –
The future always interests me,
The past is under lock and key,
So why the present has to be
Is something that has puzzled me.
Explain. Using a thousand words, no more
let me have your answer by half past four
And if you’ve done by half past one
You can have another bun.

And since you have become
A double number one –
In years of age I mean of course
Not darts or betting on a horse
Best wishes now and what’s to follow
To you up there in Sleepy Hollow.

December 1995