Mr Wickford and his wife, Mrs Wickford by name,

Thought, ‘Fun, fun, oh fun – we shall play a nasty game,’

‘Tricks,’ said Mr Wickford, ‘what tricks are now in store

For our void-of-humour neighbours living right next door?’

‘An idea!’ said Mrs Wickford to her tricksy Dixie man,

‘A gorgeous proposition, what a glorious plan!’

She told him, ‘Go! Go flatten wheat, but make sure that it stays

Mysteriously symmetrical, like geometric maize!’

The mister asked, ‘Well, that’s a trick, no doubting about that,

But what’s the joke in going out and making our crops flat?’

The missus sighed, ‘Oh, Mr Wick, you’ve missed the big idea,

For when they see this from above, new fears shall now appear!

‘They’ll start to think it’s someone else, like somebody from Mars,

Or someone smart and pretty-like from way beyond the stars!

They’ll wonder lots but in the end they’ll dread and dread and dread

The day that they might meet these folk. Oh! They’d all have fled!

‘They’ll lock their doors and windows, keep all the baddies out

And when someone comes a-knockin’, how they’d love to scream and shout!

Then their children will be raised at home, then theirs, then theirs, then theirs,

All ‘cause in our little field, we’ve drawn us circles and squares!

10:34pm 20th February 2008