[John Whitworth]

The counsellor who (by the way) was a gnu

This punctuation may not be grammatically correct, but it does point the ay the line should be SAID. A winner, George. I'll put my ten bob on it.

[Jerome Betts]

The Owl and the Pussy-cat’s daring escape
Led to fame in the Press near and far.
In the visitors poured, and to serve such a horde
A developer opened a bar.

Skin and sun-oil, and worse, swiftly covered the sand
To the chinking of coins in the till
And, though why remains murky, the Pig and the Turkey
Disappeared from the wood and the hill.

The fowl and the feline felt really fed up
With the Bong-trees all felled to provide
Wood for souvenir spoons to recall honeymoons,
'Specially carved for your runcible bride'.

So they softly and silently faded away
From a scene now idyllic no more
And found a new spot, quite deserted, if hot,
On the fabled Somalian shore.

[Martin Parker]

At an Old Folks Home near a moonlit beach
where once the Bong-Tree grew
live the faded Cast from a tale long past
of a pea-green boat’s ex-crew.

Now Puss and her Owl and the ring-nosed pig
and the turkey who’d lived on the hill
slump, mute, in the gloom of a damp Day Room
all wizened and vacant and still.

And they wait for the high-spot of their lives
when, every day about noon,
they are fed on mince and mashed up quince
by a Nurse with a runcible spoon.

And as I sang their song to them
I could see that none of them knew
it recalled the scene and how they’d been
in the days when the Bong-Tree grew.

[FOsen]

Now the Owl yachts for fun on Split-Pea I,
while the Cat captains Split-Pea II,
and they’re full of good cheer
when they meet once a year
at their publisher’s annual-do.
And the Pig-wig has rings
and new piercings in things
that we can’t really talk about here,
but Ms. Cat, nee Miss Pussy (“that was hopelessly wussy”)
says the crew still adores Mr. Lear.
“Oh, old Ed was the best, but was far too repressed
to ever have gotten things clear.
But we each popped our cork and forgave the old dork . . .
all except that utensil
who claimed spoons are prehensile,
and came out as a runcuble spork."

Frank

[George Simmers]

The competition is tough this week, without any doubt. I like Frank's a lot, and Martin's seems a certain winner. So sad, though.

[Catherine Tufariello]

Surely we've got places in the winner's circle here! I especially like yours, George.