THE WIZARD

I went to see the wizard
In the middle of the night.
His eyes were fierce and far away,
His cloak was burning bright.

“O wizard, can you teach me
How to rise and fly away?”
He stared at me, and glared at me,
And taught me what to say:

“Zooomberry, zoomberry, zoomberry pie:
Zoomberry, zoomberry, now I can fly.”

I said it once, I said it twice,
I said it three times three;
With mighty shout I bawled it out
Until he growled at me,

“You have to say it softly,
You have to say it slow,
You have to whisper it at night
As off to sleep you go:

“Zooomberry, zoomberry, zoomberry pie:
Zoomberry, zoomberry, now I can fly.”

So home I went, and down I lay,
And closed my sleepy eyes,
And as I whispered “Zoomberry,”
I felt my body rise.

Then up I floated, off I flew,
The whole wide world to see –
And now each night I tell the spell
The wizard taught to me:

“Zooomberry, zoomberry, zoomberry pie:
Zoomberry, zoomberry, now I can fly …”
(Zoomberry, zoomberry, now I can fly.)

Copyright: from Melvis and Elvis (HarperCollins, 2015), © Dennis Lee 2015, used by permission of the author and the publisher

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Dennis has lived all his life in Toronto in Canada, and you will hear his Canadian accent in his reading. When he was a child he loved ...

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