Hawkins Hollow Nursery Rhymes
The Seed-Filled Window and the Unclaimed Role
Each paired line keeps its opening but changes the last word—carry becomes study, pluck becomes look, take becomes wait—so a familiar action can be reconsidered without a lecture. The dominant anchor is the seed-filled window, whose settled seeds and cutout letters turn one seedling’s existing shadow into a readable message.
Rhyme
A shadow above Mud Kitchen read
Like roots at first, then wings instead.
Kaydence tipped the seed-filled frame;
Alice Mole watched the letters change.
Down to Creek Pebble Shelf they went.
Each carried one clue the window lent.
Emmitt found “CARRY” beside one seed;
Kaydence changed it to “STUDY” and read.
No group line hurried the next reply.
Alice held the window low and dry.
Lillian heard, “Be the gatherer—pluck.”
She shook her head. That role did not fit.
They kept the couplet, changed its end:
“Be the witness—look, my friend.”
Lillian chose where she wished to stand;
No basket, digging tool, or seed touched her hand.
At Little-Library Step, one narrow shoot
Rose from soil beside a shallow root.
The window showed TAKE along its plate;
Emmitt turned one panel: WAIT.
TAKE became WAIT. PLUCK became LOOK.
CARRY became STUDY beside the book.
The item they sought had been there all along:
A living seedling, upright and strong.
Kaydence held the frame behind the shoot.
Alice kept clear of leaf and root.
Emmitt shifted one loose card aside;
Lillian watched from the place she had chosen.
Lavender dusk passed through the frame.
The seedling’s shadow completed the name:
LEAVE IT GROW, the cutout message read,
Only while the living stem stood ahead.
No hand straightened the tender green.
No one moved it to improve the scene.
Lillian gave one quiet open palm;
The role she chose helped keep it unharmed.
About This Rhyme
Performance style: Spoken changing-last-word couplets with optional final-word substitutions, individual character lines, and no required group response.
Estimated spoken length: About two minutes.