Gum poems | The sequel
PHOTO: Councillor Peter Goody, Croydon Guardian
We’ve not often included gum poetry in these posts; it turns out to be a fairly specialized field (although the writer and poet Roald Dahl famously included a gum chewer, Violet Beauregarde, in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). However, our friends in Croydon, UK, who take their gum clean-up fairly seriously (we’ve visited the village before with its gum cleaning efforts, including in one of the very first posts of AndrewsGumWorld) — see one of the anti-gum tossing campaigns by the Redbridge Council above which involved gum targets — ran a competition last fall which offered local residents to wax poetic about gum.
There were three winners in the campaign coordinated by the Croydon Business Improvement Disrict (BID), and they were featured in a fall issue of This is Croydon Today. The winners included Penelope Boxall, Tamara Isted and Pamela Pope.
As the newspaper reported, the winners were pleased by the results of her first time at poetry:
Winner Penelope said: “I am absolutely delighted, as well as surprised as this is the first poem I have written.
“It was great fun to write something positive about Croydon. I may have to write some more now.”
Tamara has little time for inconsiderate people saying: “I do hate the way people drop gum on the streets. It gets all over my trainers.”
Without further ado or poetic desonctruction, here are last year’s three winning entries:
P E N E L O P E B O X A L L
Finished gum ain’t your chum!
Sometimes, there’s bad press about Croydon
and this can be very depressing.
So let’s start with the small
though we think it nothing at all,
and make Croydon the best place to be in.
Sure, gum might be tiny and small
but it’s a real pain and mess for us all.
For when stuck on your shoes,
it’s a like a strong glue
and picks up all manner of things!
So when you have gum
and the flavour’s all gone,
and you want to get rid of it quick.
Wrap it to scrap it including the packet
and find it a home in a bin.
A bin is your friend, not your foe
as it tries to keep Croydon litter-low.
So in making our BID
we’ll save on our quids
and be the gum-free-est borough on show!
T A M A R A I S T E D
On the pavement, on the roads,
on your trainers, on your clothes,
in the playground, in the park,
you don’t see it after dark.
Chewing gum is not a sin,
but put the goop in the bin.
Spitting it out is so not cool
so be good and follow the rule!
P A M E L A P O P E
Spitting out chewing gum is a devilish sin,
PLEASE be an angel and put it in the bin.
For it clings to our shoes and sticks to the street
And often it’s found on a table or seat.
So come on you chewers, please have a heart,
And let’s keep our Croydon looking smart.