Morning serenade for a toddler

[ragashree]

(May be enjoyably sung to the tune of “Away in a Manger”)

I hear distant screaming, the baby awakes:
The little fat Sammy, loud crying he makes.
He slowly arises, gets out of his bed,
Attend to him quickly, or you’ll soon be dead
If not from burst eardrums, perhaps from the smell –
He must reach the toilet, and all will be well.

Pajamas he takes off, and casts on the stairs:
Until you can catch him, his bottom is bare.
His toothbrush is hidden, and shall not be found,
His flannel he happily throws on the ground.
His shoes have no laces, and no-one knows why
Instead of his scarf he is wearing your tie.

His preference for breakfast is toast and Marmite
Or egg lightly boiled with bread that is white:
If you do not watch him, he washes his face
And five seconds later becomes a disgrace.
The time comes to leave, but as we close the door
He says that his teddy’s inside on the floor.

We head to the nursery and walk down the road
But he does not want to and has to be towed:
He says that he would much rather take the car
But as we have told him, it’s not very far.
The nice ladies take him for the rest of the day,
And (softly and quietly) we vanish away.

 

[wildcat]

This is very different from the earlier ones. More like prose. Or Nabokov kind of poetry. Very well written, and sadly funny.
It rings a distant bell.