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For Children
A Minibeast Slug
By Katanga
10 May 2008


I've tried a totally different metric and rhyming framework for this minibeast effort.

Very simple - but does it work?

The reference to Lewis Carroll's  Alice in Wonderland is clearly intentional (off with her head!) - maybe teachers can encourage further reading?

Also the 'nod' to W.B.Yeats - 'apple-blossom [in her hair]', from The Song of Wandering Aengus.

His early stuff (e.g. the above and Brown Penny) is very accessible, even to young children.

But who am I to say?!

Hope this is enjoyable?

Cheers!

John X



Sleepy Slug 

 

Let’s sing a song for Sleepy Slug

He’s not your average sort of bug!

 

‘Stinky’? ‘Smelly’? What’s the word?

His sliminess is quite absurd!

 

In fact he doesn’t smell at all

And can’t hear much – did you just call?

 

Well, ‘Sticky’ is my special friend

Leaving trails that never end.

 

I follow them and try to find

If he’s seen the Queen – well, never mind!

 

He won’t tell me! This I know

He’s modest – well actually ever so!

 

But now he’s acting rather strange

And in his manner, I see a change

 

“Oh thank you Ma’am!” he says to me

When I offer him a cup of tea.

 

“Off with her head!” just springs to mind

A poem of a different kind!

 

But Alice was a lovely girl

With apple-blossom in every curl

 

But you, my Slug, why do you weep?

It’s you, not her, I’d rather keep!

Reviews

Written by mia_ms_kim (915 comments posted) 11th May 2008
I enjoyed this. Made me look at the slug with a new set of eyes - asking the slug about the Queen, offering it a cup of tea etc. Really cute. 
Mia :grin

Written by Josie (2536 comments posted) 11th May 2008
Ha ha - John you seem to be making a careerof mini-beasts and getting better and better. I'm afraid that I cannot find any respect for them. No. Not any. It's a battle between them and my nice tender plants.
Surreal slug
Written by John_O (138 comments posted) 20th May 2008
Hi John - gosh its like having a conversation with oneself! 
 
You suddenly swerved towards the wild side mid poem with the Alice in Wonderland references, a little too surreal for children perhaps ? 
 
I do have to take you up on your second line - a slug is not a bug. A bug is an insect and a slug is a gastropod (which is a part of the animal kingdom). 
Sorry, but on planet science factual accuracy is all. 
 
But it was a piece of harmless fun so don't worry about us grumpy scientists. 
John_O
Wonderland Alice!
Written by Katanga (804 comments posted) 20th May 2008
Thank you John_O! 
 
Indeed a slug is not a bug, and I expressed the second line wrongly - when I say 'He's not your average sort of bug', I mean that he's exraordinary and not a bug at all, but now I see what you mean!  
 
Hmmmmm! Not too much harm done to scientific veracity, I hope, as you generously concede in you parting comment! 
 
But, I must say, I don't like inaccuracies in 'semi-educational' stuff for children - it leaves the teacher with some perhaps unwanted explaining to do! 
 
The 'Alice in Wonderland' idea popped after a glass of two - no opium hookers, mind you! Ha! 
 
It's also a reference to Brett's muse - it would take too long to explain here, but if you trawl through recent poems looking for 'Alice' in the title, you'll get the picture! 
 
It's been a lot of good-natured fun! 
 
Cheers! I shall take a stroll through your own stuff shortly. 
 
John

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