it was just a little fib
but it GREW.
Nobody checked the facts,
nobody knew.
I don’t like telling lies
but what could I do?
All my friends believed me,
even you,
even mum and dad, my teacher,
the cheetah in the zoo,
the lollipop lady who helped me across
and asked me Is it true?
But nobody can fool my gran,
she knows me through and through;
hands on hips, she looked at me
and, without further ado,
said You’re telling whoppers.
I used to tell those too,
they all start small but tend to grow
then what a hullabaloo.
It seems to me a confession, my love,
is somewhat overdue.
So I came clean and after that
I told no lies. It’s true!
(well, except for a little one
to the monkeys in the zoo
oh, yes, and the one I couldn’t help
(forgive me) telling you!)
Carole Bromley writes poetry for both adults and children. Her children’s poems have been published in The Caterpillar, The Dirigible Balloon, in anthologies from Emma Press and MacMillan and in her first children’s collection, Blast Off! Her poem ‘Goldilocks’ was published on Guardian Children’s Books and performed at the CLiPPA Awards. www.carolebromleypoetry.co.uk