Cecil Blade:
The Friendly Snake

by Seán Robinson

Deep in the jungle, there lived a snake
His name was Cecil Blade
And everywhere that Cecil went
A hissing sound he made

Cecil hissed in the morning and hissed at night
He would hiss at everything in sight
His teacher would say: ‘Please stop that hiss!’
But Cecil could not: ‘I can’t stop this Miss!’

Now Cecil was a friendly snake
Of that there is no doubt
He loved to play with other souls
He loved to lark about

But no-one ever stayed around
This was Cecil’s plight
His hissing seemed to scare them off
It scared them out of sight

So Cecil wondered why they left
But no answer could he find
For hours he passed through trees and grass
To ease his troubled mind

At last he paused beside the pond
And bent down to take a sip
When the flying fish came out the pond
And bit him on his lip

‘Ouch!’ cried Cecil, as he lay upon the grass
‘Why ever did you bite my lip, dear flying fish?’ he asked
‘I bit your lip to stop that hiss; I’ve been waiting for my chance’
And off he flew into the pond without a second glance

Cecil was so sad, that he cried & cried & cried
Then curled up into a heap and hid his head inside
‘Oh why do I have to live my life like this?’
But Cecil knew it’s all because he liked so much to hiss

So he let out the longest & the loudest hiss he could
But something was amiss, because this hiss was not good
Cecil thought: ‘That was more a shiss than a hiss to me’
When he heard a shout from up above, upon the mango tree

‘Hey Cecil Blade, it’s Morris, your old friend from way back when
And he scrambled down the mango tree to see his friend again
‘Hey Cecil, how you doing? You’re a friend I sure have missed
But did you know I moved a way because you always hissed?’

‘I didn’t tell you then but the Missus said, “Let’s go
His hisses scare off half the jungle, it’s for the best, I know”
But I came back to tell the truth, I came to clear my mind
And here you are, all alone, no others here I find’

Cecil said, ‘Been like that for quite some time
All my friends have gone
But listened to what happened, just now
There by the pond’

So Cecil told him how the flying fish had bit his lip
Just as he was bending down to take a little sip
‘Why that is most unkind!’ cried Morris, in a fit
‘Morris, no!’ said Cecil, ‘I like the lip he bit’

‘I never thought that I would ever be saying this
But my life could be so much better never saying hiss!
All my friends have left me; I’m here now all alone
They don’t like my hissing, it only makes them groan’

So the flying fish became his friend and Morris moved back too
And while Cecil’s hiss is now a shiss, his friends are far from few

Copyright Seán Robinson 2010

The author lives in Northern Ireland.

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