Dad's Favourite Shell, My Favourite Tree

My Dad told me that I could hear the sea
if I held a conch shell up to my ear.
Seemed like one of his silly ideas to me.
Like the time when at the seaside, there
he wanted to go to the fair ground and play
to win as he'd done that with his dad and
thought I'd want to. But why go all that way
and stay away from the sea and the sand?

I wanted to stay in the garden with my
friends. I can watch the slugs and bugs and snails.
Make mud pies. Mum said keep the butterfly
off the seeds she let me plant thinking I'd fail.
The sea wasn't in the shell. I hugged my tree,
I could hear sap move in waves like the sea.