The Tale of Custard the Dragon
By Ogden Nash
(as per uselessness's
poetrie)
Belinda lived in a little white house,
With a little black kitten and a little gray mouse,
And a little yellow dog and a little red wagon,
And a
realio,
trulio, little pet dragon.
Now the name of the little black kitten was
Ink,
And the little gray mouse, she called her
Blink,
And the little yellow dog was sharp as
Mustard,
But the dragon was a coward, and she called him
Custard.
Custard the dragon had big sharp teeth,
And spikes on top of him and scales underneath,
Mouth like a fireplace, chimney for a nose,
And
realio,
trulio, daggers on his toes.
Belinda was as brave as a barrel full of bears,
And Ink and Blink chased lions down the stairs,
Mustard was as brave as a tiger in a rage,
But Custard cried for a nice safe cage.
Belinda tickled him, she tickled him
unmerciful,
Ink, Blink and Mustard, they rudely called him
Percival,
They all sat laughing in the little red wagon
At the realio, trulio, cowardly dragon.
Belinda giggled till she shook the house,
And Blink said
Week!, which is giggling for a mouse,
Ink and Mustard rudely asked his age,
When Custard cried for a nice safe cage.
Suddenly, suddenly they heard a nasty sound,
And Mustard growled, and they all looked around.
Meowch! cried Ink, and Ooh! cried Belinda,
For there was a pirate, climbing in the
winda.
Pistol in his left hand, pistol in his right,
And he held in his teeth a cutlass bright,
His beard was black, one leg was wood;
It was clear that the pirate meant no good.
Belinda paled, and she cried, Help! Help!
But Mustard fled with a terrified
yelp,
Ink
trickled down to the bottom of the household,
And little mouse Blink strategically
mouseholed.
But up jumped Custard, snorting like an engine,
Clashed his tail like irons in a dungeon,
With a clatter and a clank and a
jangling squirm He went at the pirate like a robin at a worm.
The pirate gaped at Belinda's dragon,
And gulped some
grog from his pocket
flagon,
He fired two bullets but they didn't hit,
And Custard
gobbled him, every bit.
Belinda embraced him, Mustard licked him,
No one mourned for his pirate victim
Ink and Blink in glee did
gyrate Around the dragon that ate the
pyrate.
Belinda still lives in her little white house,
With her little black kitten and her little gray mouse,
And her little yellow dog and her little red wagon,
And her realio, trulio, little pet dragon.
Belinda is as brave as a barrel full of bears,
And Ink and Blink chase lions down the stairs,
Mustard is as brave as a tiger in a rage,
But Custard keeps crying for a nice safe cage.
Haha! No surprise there! What a great kids' tale! Don't think I've ever read this one.
This, Jabberwocky, The Owl and the Pussycat, and Nash's Zoo poems were in regular rotation as bedtime stories when I was a child.
No wonder I became a wordie.