by Robert Laurence
Tip:
To really enjoy the
story have your children close their eyes while you read the story and encourage them
to imagine their own images.
Outside the city, deep down in the sea,
There lived a fish cool as a fish
can be.
Killie the Kid, all his friends
would say,
Was the coolest fish in Starfish
Bay.
The Kid and his friends played
games like fin-ball,
Danced The Fish, and The Guppy on
Seaweed Mall.
They’d tie up eels, make
dogfish bark,
Tried to file down the teeth of a
sleeping shark.
But Kid decided to wander far,
Far from his home on the family
sandbar.
He swam toward the light of a
distant star,
At least he thought that’s
what he saw –
Yet what he saw was something
MORE . . .
It was no bright star at real
close range.
It was no bright star, but
something strange.
Kid began to quiver and quail
–
Kid had bumped into a one-eyed
whale!
Kid did quiver and Kid did quail,
But whatever he did was of no
avail –
For that one-eyed whale just
flashed a grin,
He opened his mouth, and he drew
Kid in.
Please, Mr. Whale, Kid
cried out in vain,
Please don’t eat me, I
won’t come again.
I’m not delicious –
I’m not even nutritious!
I’m only an inch from my
head to my tail –
I don’t weigh an ounce on
the bathroom scale!
Then Kid cried, NO –
please let me go!
I’m a kid not a squid
– NO, NO, NO!
But that whale just roared, The
squid are slow,
And I gotta eat – so in
you go!
But Kid thought fast, he
scratched his head,
Then he scratched his belly
till it, too, turned red.
Mr. Whale, he said, now
I’m not slow,
I know that you have to eat to
grow.
I know you must do what you
have to do . . .
BUT I’VE GOT THE MEASLES
– AND YOU’LL CATCH THEM
TOO!
You HAVE got the measles! the
one-eyed Whale wailed.
His tongue turned green and
his body paled.
Get out of here, he cried very
quickly.
His jaw hung down and he
looked rather sickly.
Never knowing that he’d been
tricked,
Quick as a switch, his long tail
flicked.
He blew Kid up on the top of a
spout,
He blew him up and far, far out.
Yet now Kid’s troubles were
just beginning,
He thought that he had no chance
of winning.
Kid’s eyes rolled, he
couldn’t speak a word –
In the air he’d got
caught in the beak of a bird!
A gull, very thin, his feathers
uncombed,
His eyes sunken in, his eyes
deeply domed,
That gull glanced at Kid, his
eyes red and beady,
He hadn’t eaten for days, he
looked weak and needy.
He stared at Kid, he cried out WHAT
LUCK!
He opened his mouth and he
started to cluck.
But in clucking that gull made
his only mistake.
He shouldn’t have
gloated, that was his mistake.
When he opened his beak, Kid
squirmed out -
Kid got free before he could
shout.
Down Kid dove, a half-mile or
more,
Before he fell in the shallows
near the shore.
But near the shore there lay a
crab!
The crab eyed Kid, went to grab.
Clack, went that crab. He
pinched and snapped.
He spread out his claws and the
Kid was trapped.
The Kid backed up, there was one
place to go,
But he had to hurry, that crab
wasn’t slow.
That crab’s eyes bugged out,
his blue claws were big,
Kid couldn’t burrow –
that crab could dig!
There was one place to go, it was
shining bright,
That crab was clacking, full of
fight.
Kid waited till the time was ripe
And then he darted inside a water
pipe.
That crab clawed at Kid, he was
in a jam!
There was water gurgling wherever
he swam.
Up a big brick building Kid swam
through the dark,
Swam toward a speck of light
small as a spark.
The water roared, a great hubbub,
Way up went Kid till he fell in a
tub!
From a faucet Kid fell into a tub
Where a little girl was beginning
to scrub.
When Kid Killie slid straight
down her back,
She jumped up high and began to
attack.
The little girl splashed and the
little girl slapped,
Kid Killie dodged her, his energy
sapped.
Kid Killie dodged her, but it was
no use,
Kid thought of declaring a truce.
Fins, he bubbled, but the
girl cried EEK,
Jumped from her tub and continued
to shriek.
Kid slipped and Kid tumbled,
Kid stumbled and Kid fumbled.
The little girl cried, the little
girl yelled,
The little girl shouted that Kid
Killie smelled.
The little girl washed him down
the tub drain
And Kid landed near the shore
again.
Now on the shore was a little
boy,
A little boy with a terrible toy.
The Kid hadn’t come to his
senses yet
When the boy scooped him up in a
toy fishing net!
The boy put Kid in a killie box,
Filled it with water and slid
shut two locks.
This is it, Kid thought, I’ll
not get out!
That I won’t get out
there is no doubt.
So Kid lay there and Kid cried,
Weakly he wiggled, weakly he
sighed.
Kid sank down and had given up
hope
When the boy shouted out – NOPE!
NOPE!
NOPE!
NOPE! cried the boy,
You bring me no joy!
You won’t make a tasty
dish –
You’re too small,
you’re a midget fish!
Then he opened his box and he
threw Kid back
To the bay where he lived, the
waters pitch black.
You’re too little, he
shouted, it’s too late,
he said.
I’d use you for bait, but
I’m going to bed.
And Kid didn’t argue, was
glad he was small,
Didn’t want to be eaten, was
not insulted at all.
He swam back to his house on the
family sandbar
And never again wandered too far.
The End
copyright@1998 all right reserved