Nelson Made A Wagon

His parents couldn’t buy him one,
no matter all his naggin’;
So Nelson set about to build
his very own ‘new’ wagon.
From house-to-house and door-to-door,
poor Nelson went a-beggin’;
for scraps of wood and useless wheels
to make himself a wagon.

The big wheel had but half its spokes,
the smallest one was draggin’;
not two of them were equal size,
yet Nelson made his wagon.

The wood was full of knots and nails,
the centre board was saggin’;
no matter how it squeaked and scraped,
Nelson loved his wagon.

He named it after Superman
and spent his time a-braggin’;
’bout how, “There’s not a kid in town
can beat me and my wagon.”

Yet every time he had a race,
way back he would be laggin’;
he never won a single time,
yet Nelson loved his wagon.

It squeaked, it scraped, it looked like junk
and parts were always draggin’;
but not one kid in all the town,
was prouder of his wagon.
He never did stop braggin’,
that funny lookin’ wagon,
what a sad lookin’ thing it was;
lopsided, noisy and slow,
a sure case of ‘Beauty’
in the eye of the beholder.

Footnote: Most remarkable of all the kids in our neighbourhood was Nelson. He was a fascinating kid, filled with ambition, imagination and energy. A real ‘Huck Finn’-type kid, who seemed to enjoy more the experience of wishing and trying than having and succeeding. He was a true keep-a-trying’ kid who wished for three things: a bike, a tent and a wagon. By sheer determination, he got to have all three. What a kid!