Nonsense Rhyme . . .

. . .or contradictory poem, depending on how you view it.

My younger brother asked me and my older brother about it, and we both remembered the poem from our childhood.

You can view the whole thing here:

http://www.folklore.bc.ca/Onefineday.htm

but the way we remember it is like this (condensed form):

One bright day in the middle of the night,
Two dead brothers got up to fight.

Back-to-back they faced each other,
Drew their swords and shot each other.

A deaf policeman heard the noise,
Came and shot the two dead boys.

If you don't believe this lie is true,
Ask the blind man--he saw it too!

A bit gruesome, isn't it?  Yet it could be used for teaching . . . hmmm.  Na, I think I'll pass, at least with most of my second language students.  They'd have to be pretty good to understand the humor in the verse, based on contradictions as it is.  That bit could take a whole lesson/class . . .

Plus I don't think I want to teach that to my students, especially my boys--the ones I just complained about acting out violence in class.

Violent rhymes, violent games . . . what's next?