Random Acts of Poetry

Mary, Mary, Taxidermy

Mary, Mary
Taxidermy

Mary had a wee, dead lamb,
All tied up with string.

And everywhere that Mary went,
she dragged along that thing.

The lamb was thin and dirty
its wool was falling out.

It made the teacher worry
how Mary pulled it about.

And so the teacher scolded,
“Bury it, and let it rest.

That lamb's now only skin and bones
with stuffing in its chest."

It once was Sunday dinner,
but an animal so esteemed.

That when her father skinned it
Mary grabbed some thread and seamed.

Now where’er she goes it follows,
This bag of rotting wool,

Its eyes, so black and hollow,
But faithful ever still.