The Dirigible Balloon
Poetry for Children

Octopuses Have Three Hearts

Well, what do you know?
If they get one broken, that’s two to go!

It’s an obstinacy of buffalo, a crash of rhinos,
a murder of crows.

There are 24 species of dancing frogs
and for 8000 years we’ve been keeping dogs.

Flamingos are not actually pink,
they just like eating lots of shrimp!

25% of barn owls divorce;
there are 17 expressions on a horse.

In Ancient Egypt it was illegal to kill a cat,
a squirrel can’t vomit, nor can a rat.

An ostrich can kill a lion with one kick
a polar bear’s skin is actually black.

The male penguin proposes with a pebble!
We see a shark and think we’re in trouble

but they only kill ten people a year
so really they’ve far more to fear.

A blue whale’s tongue weighs the same as a car,
a baby has a bigger brain than a dinosaur.

Pigeons can recognise 50 words,
giraffes do not have vocal chords,

a tardigrade can survive in space
and a sheep can recognise a face.

Horned lizards can shoot blood out of their eyes
to give their enemies a nasty surprise!

Vampire bats share blood with their friends
like a wedding feast that never ends!

About the Writer


Carole Bromley

Carole Bromley lives in York and writes for both adults and children. Winner of Caterpillar Prize, poems in Tyger, Tyger, The Toy, Paperbound, Little Thoughts Press and in anthologies from MacMillan, Nosy Crow, Emma Press. Teaches courses on writing poems for children https://thewritingschool.co.uk/our-courses-and-events