Children Do Tell Lies Poem by Jan Oskar Hansen

The boys ran on meadow land, far from our town,
when we came upon a snake that was sunning
It self on a tiny rise…The snake hissed- they do
and it is not a cliché- in panic we ran back to our
bikes by the road. We discussed the happening
and decided the snake was twelve feet long and
had the head of a dragon. Silence, we thought
the same, it may come looking for us, we jumped
on our bikes and hurried away.
At the dinner table- and since it was Sunday, we
had meat cakes in brown gravy with boiled spuds
and cabbage stew- I told mother that a big snake,
twelve feet, and with the head of a dragon, had
tried to eat me, showed her a scratch on my leg
she didn´t answer only told me not to eat so fast.