A Bedtime Story

Once, a long ways away, and a long time ago
Lived a wee little man with his silly pet crow;
And once every day, as the sun went to bed
The wee little man and the crow he called Ted
Would go through the woods on a nice little walk;
And while they walked through the woods, his pet crow would talk.
Now, if saying, “Pet crow Ted could talk” twists your tongue,
Just wait till I’m through, and the story is done,
Because Ted tied the twigs of two tall apple trees
To the tips of his toes, and his knobby old knees,
And these twigs made him bounce as he walked ‘round and ‘round,
And he talked really loud while he walked on the ground,
Saying, “Twiddle my fiddles, and tie me a pie,
‘Cause a silly old crow couldn’t fly high as I.”
Then the wee little man said, “You silly old bird,
Just the way that you talk takes the sense from a word;
For if fiddles could twiddle, and pies had a string,
Then ants would walk backwards, and old crows would sing.”
Replied Ted the crow to the wee wizened man,
“Perhaps ants can’t do it, but old crows sure can.”
Then he puffed out his chest, and he cawed cockaroo,
And he sang an old song titled, “How Do You Do?”
“How do you do, little maid, Liddy Lee
When the crows come by twos, and they perch on the tree?
What do you see, little maid, Liddy Lee
When the crows throw the cockleshells out on the sea?
Where do you go, little maid, Liddy Lee
When the snow drives the crows from the mulberry tree?
And what do you hear, little maid, Liddy Lee
When the crows throw the snow on the cockleshell sea?”
But the old man just laughed and said, “Such silly songs
Never croaked such a crow as he hopped right along,
Because ants can’t walk backwards, and crows cannot sing,
Just like horses can’t fly, nor do turtles have wings.”
Now the crow wasn’t happy with what had been said
So he said, “I will sing you another instead,”
Then he puffed out his chest, and he cawed cockaree,
And he sang him a song called, “When Two Turned to Three.”
“When two turned to three, and when five turned to four
Things got much stranger than ever before.
There were two little pigs, and but two blinded mice,
And the two musketeers played with three little dice.
There were five and twenty blackbirds flying in the sky;
And four the little famous boy who never told a lie.
When six turned to seven, and eight turned to ten,
Snow White had six little dwarves with her then.
All the town clocks struck first ten, nine, then eight;
And people were always too early or late,
So they turned it all back to six, seven, eight, nine,
That way we could always keep track of the time.
Now the three pigs are three, and there’s three blinded mice,
And the three musketeers play with two little dice,
And the wee little dwarves number seven in all,
And the clock strikes from one up to twelve down the hall.”
But the old man just laughed and said, “Such silly songs
Never croaked such a crow as he hopped right along,
Because ants can’t walk backwards, and crows cannot sing,
Just like snakes don’t have legs, nor do bunnies have wings.
And with that, the old man put his pet crow to bed;
And till early next morning not a sentence was said.

Copyright © | Year Posted 2015



Post Comments

Poetrysoup is an environment of encouragement and growth so only provide specific positive comments that indicate what you appreciate about the poem. Negative comments will result your account being banned.

Please Login to post a comment

Date: 10/9/2016 11:08:00 AM
Congratulations on this well deserved win. Surely a bedtime story I would have shared with my children when they were youngsters. A beautiful bedtime story to bring their imaginations into the night. A fav for me, thanks for sharing this gem! Best regards, Mikki
Login to Reply
Date: 1/2/2016 1:38:00 PM
This is a great story Isaiah, I enjoyed the read, it had me going in circles though... Congratulations on your win~ Caryl
Login to Reply
Date: 9/6/2015 11:20:00 AM
How wonderful to see such a playful poem by you! Someone should paint illustrations to go along with this - It would make a great children's story indeed! Well done, my friend. I hope you have had a nice summer.
Login to Reply
Date: 8/29/2015 11:13:00 PM
What a beauty Isaiah! So cute, kids are sure to love, congrats on first place win!
Login to Reply
Date: 8/29/2015 9:47:00 PM
Isaiah, what you have done with this is make a sweet tribute to nursery rhymes as well as emulating Seuss with your RIGHT ON meter! It's no wonder this came in a super duper winner. BIG congrats. Too bad we can't get our poems illustrated and put into a kiddie book to be sold worldwide!!
Login to Reply
Date: 8/29/2015 9:33:00 PM
Congratulations on your 1st place win:-)Alexis
Login to Reply
Date: 8/29/2015 5:41:00 PM
Wonderful story, Isaiah, I'm a big kid at heart this pleased me a lot. Congratulations on your great deserving win. Hugs Eve
Login to Reply
Date: 8/29/2015 4:53:00 PM
Congrats on a great win Isaiah
Login to Reply
Date: 8/29/2015 3:32:00 PM
Congrats on your win!!! Skyy
Login to Reply
Date: 8/29/2015 1:31:00 PM
This was precious! And by that I mean REALLY cool!
Login to Reply
Eastman Avatar
Carol Eastman
Date: 8/29/2015 1:42:00 PM
Almost forgot... Congratulations on the win!
Date: 8/29/2015 9:44:00 AM
Yahoo for you, Isaiah !!! My tongue is twisted up in a knot, but I'm still giggling!! Congratulations on your win!!
Login to Reply
Date: 8/29/2015 8:56:00 AM
Tongue twister. Isaiah, great story!
Login to Reply
Date: 8/29/2015 8:52:00 AM
Dropping back with my congrats Isaiah I knew this was a winner the first time I read it:-) hugs jan xx
Login to Reply
Date: 8/29/2015 8:19:00 AM
Fantastical piece! Super duper congratulations.
Login to Reply
Date: 8/29/2015 7:38:00 AM
This was so much fun to read out loud to my daughter, a bit of tongue twisting for me, just like Dr. Seuss' stories go. We both loved this one...Thank you so much for entering and big congrats on first place :)
Login to Reply
Date: 8/29/2015 7:33:00 AM
Congrats on your win with this poem. Dr. Seuss would have been proud.
Login to Reply
Date: 8/18/2015 8:35:00 PM
I just loved your story! Very well done!
Login to Reply
Date: 8/18/2015 5:16:00 PM
What a charming story Isaiah the imagery made me smile:-) hugs Jan xxx7
Login to Reply
Get a Premium Membership
Get more exposure for your poetry and more features with a Premium Membership.
Book: Reflection on the Important Things

Member Area

My Admin
Profile and Settings
Edit My Poems
Edit My Quotes
Edit My Short Stories
Edit My Articles
My Comments Inboxes
My Comments Outboxes
Soup Mail
Poetry Contests
Contest Results/Status
Followers
Poems of Poets I Follow
Friend Builder

Soup Social

Poetry Forum
New/Upcoming Features
The Wall
Soup Facebook Page
Who is Online
Link to Us

Member Poems

Poems - Top 100 New
Poems - Top 100 All-Time
Poems - Best
Poems - by Topic
Poems - New (All)
Poems - New (PM)
Poems - New by Poet
Poems - Read
Poems - Unread

Member Poets

Poets - Best New
Poets - New
Poets - Top 100 Most Poems
Poets - Top 100 Most Poems Recent
Poets - Top 100 Community
Poets - Top 100 Contest

Famous Poems

Famous Poems - African American
Famous Poems - Best
Famous Poems - Classical
Famous Poems - English
Famous Poems - Haiku
Famous Poems - Love
Famous Poems - Short
Famous Poems - Top 100

Famous Poets

Famous Poets - Living
Famous Poets - Most Popular
Famous Poets - Top 100
Famous Poets - Best
Famous Poets - Women
Famous Poets - African American
Famous Poets - Beat
Famous Poets - Cinquain
Famous Poets - Classical
Famous Poets - English
Famous Poets - Haiku
Famous Poets - Hindi
Famous Poets - Jewish
Famous Poets - Love
Famous Poets - Metaphysical
Famous Poets - Modern
Famous Poets - Punjabi
Famous Poets - Romantic
Famous Poets - Spanish
Famous Poets - Suicidal
Famous Poets - Urdu
Famous Poets - War

Poetry Resources

Anagrams
Bible
Book Store
Character Counter
Cliché Finder
Poetry Clichés
Common Words
Copyright Information
Grammar
Grammar Checker
Homonym
Homophones
How to Write a Poem
Lyrics
Love Poem Generator
New Poetic Forms
Plagiarism Checker
Poetry Art
Publishing
Random Word Generator
Spell Checker
Store
What is Good Poetry?
Word Counter
Hide Ad