A dragon lives beneath Mum’s bed.

I know it does but my Mum said

it’s daft to say something like that –

we haven’t even got a cat!

But I sneaked in there late at night

and gave myself a nasty fright.

Little puffs of smoke were seen

gliding upwards, bright pea green.

I pressed myself against the door

as strong claws scraped across the floor.

One rumble was enough for me,

I dared not have a look to see

if Mum had got herself a pet.

I’d really like to know, and yet

why does she feel she cannot share

the creature that she keeps in there?

Of course, it might outgrow the bed.

Then will she keep it in the shed?

The thing that’s really bothering me

is something that my Mum can’t see –

she jokes and smiles and pulls my leg,

but where’d she get a dragon egg?

—

by Catharine Boddy, from Lucky Dip (£4.99)