James and Tomas O’Brien would never clean their room.
It had been a month of Sundays and looked just like a tomb.
Bits of food and dirty socks, and grime around the walls.
Playthings from a year ago and broken footy balls.
Rats a-scratching through the piles of rubbish all round.
And Tomas and James snoring… the only living sound.
Rattus Rat lived just beneath the dirty, greasy sheet.
A half an inch from Tomas and James sleeping smelly feet.
Now rodents never really mind just what they nibble at,
And Rattus was very, very hungry little rat.
All he’d had to eat today was half a rotten pear,
A mouldy chip, an apple core, some chewing gum…. with hair.
The sleeping toe looked warm and fresh although a little smelly,
And gee! Rattus was hungry … there was rumbling in his belly.
So Rattus took a little nibble …oh! That tasted good!
It had been so long since Rattus’s food had tasted as it should.
Tomas and James still lay in repose.
While Rattus took another bite of Tomas’s toes.
First the big toe disappeared, and then the second toe,
And then the third, and then the fourth … only one to go.
But Tomas never even noticed through his doze.
That Rattus Rat was getting fat on Tomas and James toes.
When Tomas and James awoke they noticed that a foot had sort of … gone.
Instead of two bits on their legs, now there was just one.
They searched around the cluttered mess, but no feet could be found.
And Rattus Rat quietly sat … not making a sound.
“Mum!” Cried Tomas and James. “Hey Mum! My foot has disappeared!
It must be around somewhere! It’s really rather weird.
It was here when I went to bed, but it’s nowhere to be seen.
And now instead of standing up … we sort of … well LEAN!”
They searched the room from top to toe …
Oh dear! That was a pun!
But Tomas and James thought it was dreadful … not one iota fun.
They checked in every corner and swept up all the dust.
“We’ve got to find our foot!” they wailed. “We really, really must!”
“We’ll clean and polish, dust and shine, and tidy up our gear.”
“It can’t be very far away, it must be very near!”
But Tomas and James could never find their feet, polish as they would.
They even used a microscope … but that was just no good.
So the moral of this story of sadness and of gloom,
Is … make sure that it’s tidy before you set foot in your room.
