THINGS  CHIDREN SAY

(A TRUE STORY)

I was in school one morning and reading a story

About “a peculiar bug”

A very odd shape it looked like a beetle

Topped off with the head of a slug.

The bug was discovered” the story went on,

“By a young school boy” , as I recall,

“Who found that its diet consisted of bricks

Which it ate as it crawled up the wall.

The boy kept the bug secretly to himself,

And much as he tried to keep cool,

He was scared that the bug would eventually chomp

Its way through the entire school..

One day as the creature was eating the wall,

It disappeared down a small hole,

It turned out, the hole was the boiler room pipe,

Now the bug was beyond his control.

A whole week went by and the poor worried boy

Went to see if his bug could be found,

He looked in the boiler room, to his surprise,

He saw thousands of bugs all around.

They were stuffing their faces as they climbed the walls,

Eating bricks concrete rubble and earth;

It would seem that the warmth and the big boiler’s heat,

Had caused the first bug to give birth.”.

The story was ended, there was a short pause,

Then a small voice said, “Ros, d’you think maybe,

If I went and stood somewhere warm for a bit,

I would …. well, you know…have a baby?