Water in your Wellies
Listen to Mhairi read her poem ...
There are lots and lots of places water really should be found,
like puddles, ponds and rivers and in springs deep underground.
Or unexpected places like your chips or in a pie,
and it’s even found to make a large proportion of your eye.
It runs in drains and drain pipes and collects along the gutter.
There’s even small amounts of water in your pat of butter!
Clouds and snow and mist and fog are different forms you’ll find,
steam, ice and condensation are water, of different kinds.
It makes up most of our bodies, water’s even in our bones,
a camel’s hump has water in it as he moans and groans.
We collect it in our reservoirs to drink it from our taps,
and if we do not have enough then we will surely collapse!
But there’s one place that you really never ever hope it goes,
and that's to find cold water seeping there between your toes!
No, water shouldn’t ever go above your welly line,
and sometimes judging it correctly can be rather fine.
You want to go as deep and jump and splash, hard as you can
but if you're not in thigh high waders like a river fisherman…
You get water in your wellies, wellies and it’s just no good!
It can make your feet quite smelly, smelly which is rather rude!
Water in your wellies squelches two wet socks on rubber,
sloshing round and round your feet like floppy walrus blubber.
Your feet feel very heavy when there’s water in your welly,
it skooshes round and squishes like you’re walking on some jelly.
So next time you splosh be wary of your critical welly height,
and be sure that you are careful to judge your splosh manoeuvres right!
like puddles, ponds and rivers and in springs deep underground.
Or unexpected places like your chips or in a pie,
and it’s even found to make a large proportion of your eye.
It runs in drains and drain pipes and collects along the gutter.
There’s even small amounts of water in your pat of butter!
Clouds and snow and mist and fog are different forms you’ll find,
steam, ice and condensation are water, of different kinds.
It makes up most of our bodies, water’s even in our bones,
a camel’s hump has water in it as he moans and groans.
We collect it in our reservoirs to drink it from our taps,
and if we do not have enough then we will surely collapse!
But there’s one place that you really never ever hope it goes,
and that's to find cold water seeping there between your toes!
No, water shouldn’t ever go above your welly line,
and sometimes judging it correctly can be rather fine.
You want to go as deep and jump and splash, hard as you can
but if you're not in thigh high waders like a river fisherman…
You get water in your wellies, wellies and it’s just no good!
It can make your feet quite smelly, smelly which is rather rude!
Water in your wellies squelches two wet socks on rubber,
sloshing round and round your feet like floppy walrus blubber.
Your feet feel very heavy when there’s water in your welly,
it skooshes round and squishes like you’re walking on some jelly.
So next time you splosh be wary of your critical welly height,
and be sure that you are careful to judge your splosh manoeuvres right!
This poem is copyright (©) Mhairi Helme 2024
About the Writer
Mhairi Helme
A veterinary surgeon, mum, children's charity founder and trustee, adult and children's poet and writer, Mhairi's poem Brave was commended by Michael Morpurgo in the 2021 Caterpillar Prize for Children's Poetry. When not writing in her spare time, she is usually running in the fells, swimming in the Lakes, biking the trails or climbing the crags in her home in the Lake District.
