Jump Like Popcorn [rev] Poem by Margaret Alice Second

After enjoying the beautiful little faces of the genies
Shimmer and Shine, it was time to be enchanted by
my new storybook, No Beasts - No Children by one
Beverley Keller, chosen for a brilliant start in chaos

Launching straight into the most chaotic scene which
is my favourite beginning - when children & animals
are the main characters, I'm perfectly happy, the dad
a psychologist with 3 young kids, a prim housekeeper

Who's never heard of Mary Poppins,3 shaggy dogs,
a mule and a mouse and an aunt nobody knows any-
thing about and who destroyed a wedding when her
gift of a portable TV scared the guests out of church

A retired captain and a rich landlord whose only son
is unhappy, no pets of his own, running away to the
zoo, mud cakes in the first-aid container so wrapping
a cut finger in gift wrap, the captain and aunt getting

married; dogs slobbering the bride's sleeves so it's
dripping at the wedding, a possible - if improbable
parallel universe - where there is space for endless
series of alternatives, giving my mind a break from

Ordered legal sequences too boring to contemplate,
making my thoughts jump like popcorn in a warm pot
coated with scrumptious caramel making me delirious
with its crunchy tastebud-fantasies….