Picnic

George, lend a hand
and spread that cloth,
the sand is everywhere!
Just look at that,
you’d never think
it took hours to prepare!

What is it, Mum?

There’s

ham with sand,
and spam with sand,
there’s chicken paste
and lamb with sand;
oranges, bananas,
lemonade or tea;
bread with sand
all spread with sand –
at least the sand comes free!
We’ve crisps with sand
and cake with sand –
it’s grand with lunch or tea –
crunch it up,
enjoy it love,
at least we’re by the sea!

Copyright: from Dragonsfire (Faber and Faber, 1990), copyright © Judith Nicholls 1990, used by permission of the author

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Judith makes use of traditional poetic forms, including ballad and riddle. Some of the poems have a refrain which makes them sound ...

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Glossary

About Picnic

I spent my schooldays on the east coast of Lincolnshire, in Skegness, where the chilly wind straight from the North Sea did tend to put a damper on picnics a lot of the time. This was part of a whole sequence of seaside poems, and this particular one is just called 'Picnic'

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