I believe this poem came into being through a set of prompt words I pulled at random out of Robert Munsch’s online poetry (http://robertmunsch.com/poems-stories).  Always found that guy inspiring, even before I knew I was a writer.  When I was a kid, I had a whole bunch of his stories memorized and I told them to younger kids.  As an adult, I spent a few hours combing his website for cool facts and unpublished snippets (like his poetry).  It’s really good to know he once worked in daycares, just like me.  Although, I am a little jealous his boss actually urged him to take time off to write his stories down and try to get them published (does anyone tell me “Jennifer, go home and write your stuff; we can handle the kids for a few weeks without you, you great author-in-the-making you”?  NO!)

Okay, but despite the preamble, this goofy ballad I wrote (circa age 20) has nothing to do with Robert Munsch.  It’s just the prompt words that gave me wacky ideas:

Verse 1

Walla walked into her cardboard mine

Miners were sitting in boxes for lunch,

Walla stomped a box flat and shouted out

“Why is my cardboard cubed?”

             One little miner hastened to say,

             “We thought we’d try something new.”

             Walla laughed, “What dumb, square stuff!”

             “I’ll show you how it’s done.”

Refrain

Walla worked hard and Walla worked fast

Walla punched figures out: legs, arms, head

She slapped two together with glue for brains

And beheld her cardboard people

Verse 2

“There!” she cried, “Now, back to work,”

“I need more cardboard to dress them up.”

The clothes were plain as plain could be

For paint brewed far away.

Each new being dressed in brown paper

Marched its simple face out the door,

They stepped in mud and trailed it on

To a land deemed wild and scary.

Refrain

Walla worked hard and Walla worked fast

Walla punched marchers out: legs, arms, head

She slapped two together with glue for brains

And released her cardboard people

Verse 3

In the new land, they found their foe

Wet rainbows splashed in a cave

Though bidden to shut paint down

The cardboard things stood gawking.

They dragged home their sodden feet,

Their heads hurt with thoughts unthunk.

Said the brainiest glue glob, “purple nice”

So Walla recycled.

Refrain

Walla worked hard and Walla worked fast

Walla punched talkers out: legs, arms, head

She slapped two together with glue for brains

And rebuilt her cardboard people

Verse 4

“Now,” Walla said, “the mine grows damp,”

“You better dig up all the cardboard you can.”

The miners got drowsy and woke up fired;

They lay back down to sleep.

“It won’t be long,” one yawned to his friend,

“She’ll tire of the same old craft, you’ll see.”

But she was set in her ways with nary a change

And the miners turned into cardboard.

Refrain

Walla worked hard and Walla worked fast

Walla punched miners out: legs, arms, head

She slapped two together with glue for brains

And rehired her cardboard people