Not Telling
(A skipping chant)
I’ve got a secret,
Maybe I shall speak it –
Maybe I shall leak my secret indiscreet.
I’ve got a story
Told to me by Rory –
Maybe I shall store my story safe and sweet.
To how many folk
Shall I utter not a croak,
Shall I never chat or jaw
What I saw ?
And how many days
Shall I mutter not a phrase,
Shall I never breathe a word
What I heard ?
Your hunger’s getting bolder,
Your guesses getting colder –
But promise to be good
And I’ll tell you when you’re older.
Five fives are twenty-five
And three threes are nine
I’ve got a secret
And it’s mine, all mine.
There have actually been whole studies conducted into skipping chants and clapping songs, and it seems ti’s a surprisingly conservative world, with endless variations around a few old standards – number one in the playgrounds for the past few decades has been A Sailor Went to Sea, latterly morphed into We Went to a Chinese Restaurant. I don’t hold out much hope of entering the canon, and quite honestly until it’s been playtested by proper six year olds, we’ll never know if it even meets the brief.
Rhyming Couplets 