“Bath time! Oh no! Not now!
Do I really have to Mum?”
John said with such a sulk
And a massive huge tantrum
And up the stairs he stomped
Stamping all the way
It wasn’t fair! It wasn’t right
That his day should end this way
So he splashed into the bath tub
In a mood as black as soot
But in his haste he knocked a bottle
Of bubbles with his foot
And all at once they emptied out
They swirled and disappeared
Into the water in a flash
Now John was near to tears
But then an odd thing happened
For he felt so feather light
And realised by some magic
He’d vanished out of sight
For in that small short second
He’d become a water drop
And was heading down the plug hole
With the others – drip drip drop!
He headed to the drains
And there right out of town
To the sewers for a cleaning
Where he was hosed the whole way down
From the sewers he then travelled
Into the waterways
That fed down to the oceans
The sea’s wet and salty spray
But before he knew much else
He felt an odd feeling
As he started to evaporate
And drift high to the ceiling
The ceiling of the world
Where clouds just came and went
And sure enough he joined them
His energy quite spent
But that wasn’t quite the end
Of John the water drop
For before he’d re accustomed
He was falling in big plops
Of rain or was it snow
He really wasn’t sure
But in a short few minutes
He was back on earth once more
And heading to a lake
A huge big reservoir
Where water for the local town
Was drawn from near and far
And so he thus continued
As a droplet with the rest
Towards a place he recognised
The place he liked the best
Ahead a noisy gurgle
He gulped – it made him think
And with a splutter and a splosh
He arrived back in his sink
And there the magic ended
He became a boy again
From then on bathing daily
Save returning to the drain!
This story of John the water drop was used to illustrate the water cycle when my children were little!
Ginz&Tonic 