Baby Wants a Penguin

[billroper]

And here's the song I wrote for the FilkOntario songwriting contest. The required words were:

Penguin, elemental, preservation, maple, graphic.

Piece of cake. :)

Words and Music: Bill Roper
Copyright 2009

Baby Wants a Penguin

(Chorus)
When your baby wants a penguin,
It’s the only thing she’s got on her mind.
When your baby wants a penguin,
You know that’s the thing that you’d better find.
She’s crawling around and she’s starting to prowl,
And if she doesn’t get it, well, she's going to howl.
When your baby wants a penguin,
She is gonna drive you out of your mind.

You’re looking at a problem that is fundamental.
You’re looking for a toy that might be sentimental,
But everything that you might provide is elementally wrong.
That’s why you’re singing this song.

You know your little girl has got no reservation.
You’re gonna have to do it for self-preservation.
The urges that you feel for incineration are wrong.
That’s why you’re singing this song.

Now she’s drawing you a penguin with the syrup maple,
The sticky sort of graphic that’s her latest staple,
And every other use you might have for a capo’ll be wrong.
That’s why you’re singing this song.

(Final chorus, then spoken)
Here, dear, I got you a penguin.
What’s that?
You want a doggie.

Comments

[polaris93.livejournal.com]

Love it! :-)))

[madfilkentist]

The words on screen just don't convey the resigned way you delivered the last line at FKO.

[markbernstein.livejournal.com]

There's a lot to be said for "write what you know". :)

[quadrivium.livejournal.com]

That is AWESOME! You used all the words so well -- none of them seem like they had to be jammed in there to fit.

[billroper]

Thanks! I felt a little bad about having to stick maple after syrup to get it in the rhyming position, but it really wanted to go there. :)

[min0taur.livejournal.com]

Diggin' the Byronic rhymes!

And I can only think of one more surreal situation: You get her a penguin and she wants you to install Windows 7 instead...

[judifilksign.livejournal.com]

My middle son collects stuffed penguins. I so get this. And what's more? The last stuffie he wanted was, in fact, a doggie. You be tapping into the global parental XP.