Prickly Porcupine

Prickly the Porcupine
Was curled up in a ball,
You wouldn’t know an animal
Was lying there at all.

He heard somebody calling
And he tried to have a look,
But found he couldn’t move his head –
Poor Prickly was stuck!

Instead of walking on his legs
He had to roll along,
And tried to find his mummy
To tell her what was wrong.

Now as his head was tucked away
He couldn’t see at all
But just kept right on rolling
Like a spiky little ball.

Against a hollow beech tree
He came at last to rest,
Quite startling a woodpecker
Who there had made its nest.

The bird flew down to Prickly
To see what he could do,
And tried to get him unrolled
In the only way he knew.

His clever beak pecked sharply
At the joining he could see,
Till Prickly uncurled again –
Relieved that he was free.

He thanked the kindly woodpecker
And once more feeling fine,
He scuttled home to mummy –
Now a happy porcupine!

∼ Porter G., Hilda Offen, Pradera, Esme Eve, Alan Jesset, Richard Hooke