Broccoli Trials

He made faces at broccoli with no remorse,
so he veered from the spears and proceeded on course.
Mashed potatoes were fine and the chicken okay,
but the presence of broccoli turned him away.

I was doing my best to make Timmy aware
how good broccoli is despite his icy stare.
“All the comic book heroes eat their broccoli!”
Then he politely handed his portion to me.

There’s a heap of nutrition to help bodies grow!”
(Did I sound like a adman on the radio?)
Having ushered the broccoli back on his side,
I saw Timmy regard it as if it had died.

I thought maybe I’m going about this all wrong;
as a child he might think I’m coming on strong.
So I looked at his sister and offered her more
but old Timmy sat straight with his feet on the floor.

Needing some other tactic I thought of a ploy
which I hoped would connect broccoli to the boy.
Timmy was into baseball with his special team,
yet the tie to the vegetable ran out of steam.

Neither Superman nor New York Yankees would do,
so I resigned myself to see his point of view.
“Timmy, I also hated it when I was young;”
and with that Timmy chuckled and stuck out his tongue.


24 Lines
Writer’s Cramp
May 15, 2013