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……
