Davey Ball

When Davey Ball was only three

He sat upon his father’s knee,

Played ‘horsey, horsey, don’t you stop!’

Until his dad was fit to drop,

They’d ride through woods at break-neck speed

The hero and his trusty steed,

They’d ride through fields, they’d ride through town,

They’d ride up hills then ride back down,

As sure as Davey was his name

He seemed to understand the game,

But when his dad began to bray,

And reigned him in with ‘woah boy, woah!’

Would he shake his head and neigh?

No, he chose instead to moo!

His teacher thought it rather strange

The way he used to rearrange,

And swear that 1 + 1 was 4

Whilst walking backwards through a door,

The problem was that four meant two

As far as little Davey knew,

He’d swear sometimes that black was white,

That up was down, that left was right,

If told to come he’d walk away,

If asked to leave he’d often stay,

And at the park it’s not enough

To slide down slides conventionally,

He much prefers to slide back up,

Misunderstanding gravity!

Though Davey seemed a stubborn boy

He did not do it to annoy,

He just assumed you understood

That ‘good’ meant ‘bad’ and ‘bad’ meant ‘good’,

(Though he could never understand

That ‘salt’ meant ‘salt’ and ‘sand’ meant ‘sand’)

Yes, Davey was a curious child

Who often frowned when others smiled,

Though just as happy as the rest

He frowned the most when happiest,

(And just to set the record straight,

He smiled as often as he frowned,

Though smiling when you’re most irate

Is really quite the wrong way round!)

He has a topsy-turvy brain,

Or so the family doctors claim,

For when they turned him on his head

His face turned white instead of red,

“This cannot be!” the doctors cried,

Although it could not be denied

That science must be incomplete

When the blood went rushing to his feet,

They called it topsy-turvyosis

In their final diagnosis,

And happy to have found a name

Proclaimed the case a big success,

While Davey’s mum, who knew the game,

Continued playing, more or less,

So who was worst off over all?

I’ll tell you who, young Davey Ball,

For Davey never really knew

What people wanted him to do,

He tried his level-best to please,

He never meant to taunt or tease,

He tried so hard to understand

The difference between salt and sand,

But in the end all he could do

Was act the only way he knew,

So if you ever meet young Davey

And find him strange, please bear in mind,

That far from being bad or crazy,

He’s tender, loving, good, and kind,

And in the end it’s not that hard

For us to understand,

That if you want the salt, you see, 

You simply ask for sand……