The Tall Girl With Skinned Knees - (From My Chap Book "from Childhood"

The tall girl with skinned knees hair of straw Shirley ‘the hag’ Her voice cracks when she talks Skinny torn knees knock when she walks She will flavor all Shirleys to come Her face above left or right of any Shirley When the hag skips rope She clacks like a bag of bones Dirty hair flops Singing a school room tune “The frog he would a wooing go’ It fits…….ho ho Just wait for the rope to tangle Frog voice break The descent like a tinkertoy tower Knees all mangled Feel sorry then When tears streak her bony face Shirley ‘the hag’ Poor skinny baby To the office run with broken stilts Stumble again Ripped to the bone maybe .................................................................................................. For Robert Dufresne, my humor-loving friend