Hawkins Hollow Nursery Rhymes
Clockwork Garden Marker at Cobb Orchard Press
The silly relay words become useful cues: zim means start, zoggle means look, and zum means pause. Each round has a different starter. The marker’s route drawing becomes a tap-tap instrument that reveals where the wet pattern has changed.
Rhyme
Four ways came down from inlet height.
No line formed in silver light.
Alice began: “Zim means start.”
Callen began next and passed the part.
Aydin said, “Zoggle—look and see.”
Emmitt said, “Zum—pause with me.”
New starter, new round, no leader stayed.
The clockwork marker clicked as they played.
At berry landing, one bright arrow shone.
It pointed toward a stage that was not their own.
They did not push or hurry through.
They asked, “What changed? What can tapping do?”
Tap went gear one. Tap went gear two.
Wet marks joined where the safer path grew.
At Cobb orchard press, the chart line stopped.
Not at the stage where the shiny arrow pointed.
About This Rhyme
Performance style: Spoken nonsense-to-meaning rhyme with pointing, rotating starts, soft tapping, and one stop-and-look cue.
Estimated spoken length: About 50 seconds.