The Crocodile has Many Teeth

The Crocodile Has Many Teeth

by Sue Spiers

 

The crocodile arrives at the local shops.

Its many legs stamp and jiggle.

Its many arms carry pots with plants.

 

Mr Bennett sawed packing pallets, then nailed them

in squares around two saplings

growing up through pavement gardens.

 

He rubbed the splintery planks with sandpaper

and painted them blue,

lined the spaces with black plastic.

 

Heavy bags of compost were split and poured

into the hand-made planters.

Mr Bennett swept up the grains that spilt out.

 

Miss Brown hands out brightly coloured trowels

‘One between two’ and ’Help each other’

as the children make holes in the dirt.

 

Class 2B are obedient and no one throws mud.

Jess squeals when she finds a worm.

Splotches of green spring out between planks.

 

The crocodile cleans its many hands with wipes,

collects up the empty pots,

returns the trowels to a gardening box.

 

Shoppers smile at the new growth by the café.

The publican refills his watering can

after his hanging baskets are done.

 

The crocodile skips back to the school.

Fruity chews and lollipops

cover its many tongues and its many teeth.

 

Inspiration: At my local shopping precinct the planters appeared, so this is based on a real life event, along with a class of children wearing half-sized high-viz tabards, a teacher leading them and a teacher following them. I have always loved the counting system of one, two, many which is nicely vague about exactly the number of legs, arms, hands, tongues and teeth this particular crocodile had. There’s a plaque on each of the planters showing it is a biodiversity project run by the local primary school.

 

Image by Sue Spiers

 

Sue Spiers works with Winchester Poetry Festival, and helps to run a spoken word event called Winchester Muse. She edits for the Open University poetry society and supports T’Articulation, Pens of the Earth and enjoys open mic events with the Front Room at Southsea, Open Mic at Chichester, Write a Note at Southampton, and Tongues & Grooves. Her poems have appeared in both print and on-line magazines. Sue Tweets @spiropoetry.