WIGGLETAIL WORM

By Lee Brock

I.

Wiggletail worm lived down in the ground
And burrowed his way all around town.
He came up in the garden of Flossie Mc Bride,
There stood a robin; Wiggie almost died.
He quickly plopped back into the ground,
And burrowed his way back across town.
Wiggletail worm thought he now had it made,
‘Til farmer Brown came outside with a spade.
He turned the ground over and Wiggie was there
On top of the ground gasping for air.
Quickly a new hole, Wiggletail made,
He wanted nothing to do with that spade.
Farmer Brown said, that looks like fish bait,
And to go fishing I just can’t wait.
So thrusting his spade in the ground once more,
He took poor Wiggie, and made him fish lore.
That’s how Wiggie became fish bait
For the rest of the story you’ll just have to wait

II.

Wiggletail worm wiggled off of the hook
And floating upward took a quick look.
There was a bass making a pass at that worm.
Now watch Wiggie show that bass how to squirm
When he saw the danger that he was in,
And the bass missed Wiggie by the skin of a fin.
Wiggletail worm crawled out on the grass,
And waited a moment for his dizziness to pass.
Then Wiggletail worm burrowed down in the ground,
And made his way back into the town.
There Wiggle tail worm felt safer by far
Until his burrow was run over by a car.
The auto smashed Wiggie’s tunnel down flat
And Wiggie sure didn’t think much of that.
He hurried away from that part of the city,
Nobody, on a worm seemed to have any pity.
It made Wiggletail worm very very sad
That everything seemed to keep coming up bad.

III.

One good thing about it for Wiggletail worm
He always seemed, somehow to squirm
Out of his troubles and still stay alive.
Alive was the goal for which he must strive.
So he kept on moving around there under the ground
Hoping that soon a safe place could be found.
Then Wiggie decided to go out to the zoo
To see if something there was that a poor worm could do.
He came to the surface in the elephant’s pen.
That was a bad spot for a worm to be in.
The elephant kept walking this way and that:
Wiggie thought surely he would end up smashed flat.
He dodged to the left and dodged to the right
He wriggled around in a terrible fright
Then he saw nearby, a small crack in the wall,
And toward that escape he managed to crawl.
He suddenly found himself in the cage
Of a chimpanzee in a terrible rage.
WHAT NEXT?


IV.

He couldn’t measure his danger with a measuring tape
When found caged with an ape bent out of shape.
The ape spotted Wiggie, and reached out for him.
Wiggie climbed up a tree and out on a limb.
But apes can climb trees, and this ape did that:
Wiggie dropped to the ground as quick as a cat.
The ground there was soft, so Wiggie dug in,
And burrowed his way from out the ape’s pen.
Wiggie wondered what in the world he would do
Since he sure wasn’t welcome anywhere in the zoo.
He went back to the garden of Flossie McBride,
To see if he could find a safe place to hide.
When he emerged from the ground he saw a rain cloud;
Lightening flashing, and thunder real loud;
Rain coming down hard accompanied by hail;
Wiggie curled up and turned into a snail.
At being a worm he just seemed to fail,
And that is the last of Wiggletail’s tale.

There may be a sequel to this called "Curly the Snail"