TICKLES COTTAGE

WHAT’S IN A CHIMNEY

Have you ever looked at a chimney-stack

With its tall brick neck and its crooked back

Wondered at the stories and the tales they stoke

Dreams and mysteries adrift in the smoke

Are there mysteries of a cuckoo's egg, tales of a burglar’s cap?

Secrets hidden forever in Santa’s special map?

A cluster of cobweb castles, your sister’s favorite shoe

A broken reindeer’s antler, a Christmas gift for you.

Do you hear the call of whistling winds that blow as winter nears?

The hum of ancient voices that no one ever hears?

A hidden face behind the flames, as the darkening nights unfold?

There lie the tales of history, which the chimney leaves untold.

ROCKING CHAIR

I bought myself a rocking chair

Took it from the box

Set it up, to sit me down

When the chair began to rock

It rocked and rocked and rocked and rocked

I scratched my head, completely shocked

"Stop!" I cried, "Stop! Stop! Stop!

Or I'll bring you back to the furniture shop!"

But it didn't care, no, not one bit

Knowing I'd nowhere else to sit

So there I stood, like a mindless sheep

'Til the rocking chair rocked itself to sleep.