The game of one cat one kitten

We're going to play
the game of one cat one kitten
(says Ruby).

You'll need to be
a lot of characters,
because Gloria won't understand.

You'll have to be my Mum.
I'll say, can I learn how to cook?
And you'll teach me.

And I'll run away
because the Mum's food is yukky
-- we won't say gross.

You pretend to lie on the road
and be a kitten.
I find you and make you my pet.

The more time you spend writing this down,
the less time we have
to play the game.

Healthy Things

I should never be sick
'cause we have Healthy Things
(says Ruby).

They're little tiny small things
and they're a lion. Here, I'll draw one for you.
There are arrows pointing to their tummy,
with skin dots, pale, very hard to see.

You should always have one a day
so you don't get sick.
Well, I've got the hiccups inside my tummy
so I should have had more.

They taste like -- how can I describe it?
Say you were cooking a Healthy Thing
and you just needed two ingredients:
an orange and some salt.

You squeeze out the juice and mix it up,
pour it into a salt bowl
and it turns into a a Healthy Thing.
Hm, how can I describe it?

It tastes like lemon with sour salt.
They're called Healthy Things
because they're Healthy
and because they're Things.

The understudy

My monkeys have been teaching me
a rock dance
(says Ruby).

I am going to make the costume
a bit big
in case I am sick.

If I was sick
you could paint your face
and pretend to be me.

You could change your voice
into a beautiful voice
like mine.

I will teach you the moves.
Just bend your knees a bit.
You have to bend your knees anyway!

You can take my replacement.
The costume might be a bit small
but I promise it will fit you comfortably.

Sue's father

Sue is my friend in Nelson
(says Ruby).
May's father used to be a burglar.
She told me that.

But he wanted to be in a family
so he changed his mind.
Most burglars don't do that.

Talk about burglars

We can talk about burglars
(says Ruby).
You can go first and tell me all
you know about burglars.
Then I can go second and tell you
all I know about burglars.
We can tell each other secret things
that only we know about burglars.

Burglars wear black.
Black hat and black scarf
and special boots that make no noise.
Our burglar used a sock on the line
to sweep all the footprints away.
And then he had to wash it
and put it on the clothes line again.

By the ways,
he couldn't hide in our garden
because we don't have bushes.
We just have plants.
By the ways,
he'd have to lie down,
and we would see his feet.

Morning is pink

Morning is pink
(says Ruby).

If it's pink, it's morning.
And if it's not pink,

you have to go back to sleep
for a long, long time.

The 12 little pigs

I'll tell you a story
(says Ruby).
It's about 12 little pigs
so it's probably going to be
a long sort of story
and it's probably not going to finish.

And they grew and grew and grew
and their birthday was every single day.
The birthday that came first was Hannah,
and she went 12, 13, 14, 15 and she stopped.
She was very cheeky when she was one.

And they were all twins, Anna and Belly,
Fatima, Ruby, Dawny, May,
Yayayaya (it's a Maori name for a girl),
May, Megan, Bella and Belle.

And the house was very big,
as tall as a mountain,
the house was wide enough for 20 houses.
The house was full of beds and furniture,
furniture furniture furniture furniture,
just one big room and nowhere to walk.

Sunburn

I was playing outside on the monkey bars
(says Ruby)

and I started to feel
boiling hot.

So I ran into my classroom
to get sunblock on me.

When you get sunburn
you feel it on your face.

Your cheeks start to get painful
and your nose starts to get painful

and your ears start to get painful
and your eyes and your mouth get painful

and even your hair and your bones
inside your body and your brains get painful.

Not the rest of your body.
Just your head.

I tried to do something to stop it:
I flopped my head around

tried and tried and tried and tried and tried
but it would not work.

In this world

In this world
these are all the sorts of crabs
we didn't know about
(says Ruby).

Crying crabs
mistake crabs and
paper clip crabs.
They scuttle scuttle scuttle
and steal paper clips.

The rule in this world:
you are not allowed to use
horseshoe crabs
for fishing bait.

It's sad: people are not
listening to the rules.
Like Magnus, who touched
the dressing-up during reading
and he touched it again
and he made a choice
and touched it
one more time.
He got into 10-50 trouble,
last-the-whole-year trouble.

It's sad that people don't learn the rules.
So they say yeah,
let's go out and kill
horseshoe crabs
and the god of sea
will get angry.

I'm allowed

I'm allowed to change my name
(says Ruby).

People will think
my name is still Elsie
but my name is Mabel.
I don't like names
that get older.

I'll have each name
for two school weeks
so my other name
gets new again,

clean, and not old.
Maybe I'll be
Ruby Mabel
Ruby Mabel Ruby.

We are going to learn

We are going to learn
how to be respectful
and inclusive
(says Ruby).

We are also going to learn
how to catch and kill bad stuff
like white tailed spiders
because we are playing school.

So if you have been inclusive
put up your hand
and we'll put your name
on this chart.

Very good, pink teddy bear!
I'm very proud of you.
You'll have a tick
for your name.

You are 65
so you are going up
to the highest level.
You are going to the Kiwi class.

The god of mud

We don't want anybody dying
(says Ruby)
because the people get sad
and make a noise --
"Oh, oh, oh, we want granddad!"

The god of mud kills people
when they need to be killed.
She eats them
then spits them out.

And if she didn't kill people
she'd be sad because
she'd have nothing to do.
So that's why she kills people.

I'll draw her for you.
The god is a giant,
curly hair, ears, earrings.
She's a stick person and an island.

She's got a person in her mouth
(not happy) and she spits her out.
The person looks like a normal person
but her vagiva is gone

and her eyeballs fall out
into the god's mouth.
She goes chew, chew, chew.
She is a horrible, horrible, horrible god.

A cold teabag

A cold teabag on a sore eye feels good
(says Ruby at WOMAD).
A cold mermaid on the eye
feels good too.

Is this where crocodiles live?
Remember I'm here to protect you.
My job is to keep you protected
from bad things.

So many people!
Too many people to count.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 —
up to the last human number!

She poisons people

Hannah is not my friend any more
because she poisons people
(says Ruby)
and punches people
and sneaks up behind them and
poisons them.

So that's a yukky person
and I don't want to see her any more.

Hannah my friend has poisoned the queen
'cos she wants to be queen.
We have to save the queen.
We have to save her with the flower,
the light of the flower.
That's the only thing
that will save her.

The pollen absorbs
the sickness and poison
and the person
comes alive again.

And water can wash the pollen out.
The water stays
because water is good for you
and can keep you alive.

Oh no! Not again! Do you know what?
She's poisoned everybody now
except for us. How could she?
That is not acceptable.
That is not suitable.

Police 111. I need you
to put someone in jail.

Eggs are very powerful too

Eggs are very powerful too
(says Ruby).

They can stop anything
that comes into the same bowl.

Then you can mix it in
and it realises
it's a nice thing
that can't do any harm.

It's best to look out of the window

It's best to look out of the window
(says Ruby)
when you're thinking.

Because that helps.
That helps a lot.

Do you know why my voice is pretty?

Do you know why my voice is pretty?
(says Ruby, after the grommets go in).

Little pieces of apple skin
got stuck inside my ears
and that makes it very hard
to tell if you are shouting.

The words catch on the apple skin
but the words have to go down a tube
and get inside your head
because that's where you hear them
properly.

That's why I couldn't hear well.
That's why I needed to shout.
The doctor took out the apple skin.
That's how I found my pretty voice
the voice I am using today.

What to do with Kyoko

I know!
(says Ruby)
First we can dress her.
Then we can admire her.
Then we can undress her.
Then we can show Mumma
how to dress her again.

Your life

Your life shines
like a lemon
in leaves.

Your life speaks
commandments
through stone.

Your life stands
a sun dial
for puzzled souls.

Your life sings
a descant
to the planet's groan.

Your life
wrapped in sacking
pulses on.

Your life goes
where it goes
and has not gone:

A sweet-sour
birth-day
gift for you alone.


(For Diana Neutze on her 70th birthday, bitterly afflicted with MS and its complications, and still finding poetry in the garden.)

Quite right baby

Good fairies gather
around your name.
Our wishes are burdens.
Our wishes are gifts.

We wish you everything—
freckles and fame,
rockets and rocking chairs,
roses in the rain.

You can’t play with everything.
You don’t have time.
You don’t have the space.
You like the wrapping best.

A king among kids
you arrived
with a solid gold Lego set:
some people, some genes,

a city, a smile.
That’s everything.
That’s all you need
for the game.

You’ll make a mighty tower
or a tiny flower—
we don’t care which.
We love you anyway.

You play with the packaging.
Quite right, baby.
You’ll grow into your skin.
You’ll grow into your name.

© Rachel McAlpine 2009, For Hugo

Iceburg Land by Dylan aged 5

One day ice was falling over the land,
One day ice was falling over the land,
Over the iceburg land,
And in there was an ice crazed man,
An ice crazed man.

Yeah!

And the ice bite is ice
And the crack of the ice is the ice man
Ice man cracked on him.

Ha!

(c) Dylan Battersby Gifford, aged 5