[John Whitworth]

I am looking for a poem which begins thus. Further lines are something like

The cat's out in the hall
And he's only got one ball
And they're looking for the the other one in the shed.

I'm hopeful Ann might know. It is hardly conceivable I dreamed it.

It goes (thanks to Jayne)

Father cut the whiskers off the bread.
There’s a woman in the shithouse, half-dead.
There’s a cat up on the wall
And it’s only got one ball
And we’re looking for the other one in the shed.

[Jayne Osborn]

It's to be found here, John.

It's a children's Liverpool street song, apparently.

Jayne

PS. For future reference, to find something like that, just put a line or a phrase inside quotation marks and Google it. Something usually turns up. Easy peasy!

[John Whitworth]

I tried that and it didn't. Thanks Jayne. Liverpool eh? And George Mellly of course. I've actually got the book. For those of you born in a better world, the bread is mouldy and father is cutting the mouldy bits off. I remember my mother doing that. Oh we were SO poor, ll the fault of the USA which wouldn't give us any money. Germany got all that!

And don't talk to me about Marshall Aid. We didn't get much of that. Most of it was loans tied to the purchase of American goods. We didn't pay that back till yesterday. Never mind. All is forgiven. We love you.

[Ann Drysdale]

Not exclusive to scousers...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FlOIjVOI-k

[Ann Drysdale]

Cheer up, John. Remember all those brilliant food parcels from the Aussies, Gawd bless 'em. Things in tins - Dundee cake and soft, white, salty cheeeeeese....

[John Whitworth]

God bless the Aussies indeed, Ann. I'm almost sorry we duffed them up at the cricket. Almost.

My poetry does very well there. Not here though.

If I couldn't live in England I'd live in Ireland. And after that I'd live in Melbourne and watch cricket at the MCG, home of the most blessed Shane Warne.

[Gregory Dowling]

Just out of curiosity, Jayne, which lines did you find with Google? I tried a few of them and couldn't find anything. And the link you provide just takes me to the title-page of George Melly's trilogy in Google books.

[John Whitworth]

I got to the page with the rhyme on it. I couldn't copy it though.

[Ann Drysdale]

Since it's almost the same as what you wrote in the first post, could you not just alter your post accordingly and copy that?

[Gregory Dowling]

I now see that the Google books page has the phrase "Father cut the whiskers off the bread" in the search-box at the top, which answers my question, but I don't see these words anywhere else on the page. I certainly can't see a rhyme anywhere.

Maybe it's a Mac thing...