The Dirigible Balloon
Poetry for Children

Nits

It started with a little itch
just behind my ear,
that turned into a bigger itch,
that grew into a fear.

I asked my mum to take a look,
she grabbed the special comb.
She rooted round then took a breath,
confirming with a groan,

“It’s nits! There must be tens of them.
You’re like a head-louse hive!
We need to come up with a plan
so not one nit survives.”

My sister wandered in and asked
If she could take a look.
Mum cried, “Do not go near her head.
Sit still and read a book!”

She got some stinky hair wash then
she combed (and combed some more).
I asked her if she’d got them all,
she cried, “I can’t be sure!”

I shuddered at the thought of it –
my poor infested head!
I couldn’t bear to think of the
alive nits, or the dead!

Just as mum grew tired, and sighed,
“That’s it! I’ve done my best!”
My sister, scratching her head,
asked her, “What about the rest?”

About the Writer


Fi Calvert

Fi is a primary school teacher by day and a poet by night. She had two poems commended in the YorkMix Poems for Children Competition 2021 and has had a poem about a tardigrade published in The Caterpillar. She loves to write poetry for children in the hope they might relate, laugh or both. Her favourite poems to write are inspired by funny or grumpy things her children say.