Mary, Mary and Other Wrecked Wordplay--Fractured Nursery Rhyme

Today, for this beautiful ninth day of National Poetry Month, I'm doing a fractured Nursery Rhyme. I'll write the actual nursery rhyme first and then mine. Enjoy!










Mary, Mary quite contrary
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockle shells
And pretty maids all in a row.

 Mine:

Mary, Mary quite contrary
How does your garden grow?
It's Arizona here, my friend,
So naught above ground shows.

You try and plant carrots and beans
Tomatoes, peas, and squash
But what comes up gets et by squirrels
The whole darn thing's a wash

You water 'til your money's gone
But still the plants all die
And then you head off to the store
Some actual food to buy.

© 2016 by H. Linn Murphy







And another:
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall
All the king's soldiers
And all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again.

And mine:

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Why he did so I can't say at all.
Cause eggs belong in the fridge or the plate
Not hanging 'round near the garden gate.

And while we're asking about vagrant food,
Why was he thinking the horse would be good
For sticking shells back together with glue?
And king's men would certainly rot at it too.

If you'd like to know more about fractured nursery rhymes you might try here: And good luck with the garden...and your egg reconstructions.