Cooper O’Donoghue:The Boy with Spring Feet
by
Matt Zurbo

 

Cooper O’Donoghue had a wish,
as he jumped and hopped about.
“Steel springs on my legs please!”
he commanded with a big shout!

So, in the school woodwork room,
blue collar kids didn’t muck about.
Using truck parts,
cogs,
spools,
a pair of spring socks were belted out!

Boing, boing, zoink, boing!

“Lookout! Something is coming!”
the kids in the hallway shrieked,
as Cooper O’Donoghue burst forward,
with nothing but springs on his feet!

First he slam-dunked a basketball,
then ten more, just for fun.
“This is all too easy!” he smiled,
as his team quite easily won.

Next, he hopped over traffic,
nobody could hold Cooper down.
Everyone else crowded, miserable,
their feet trapped on flat ground.

Cooper then picked high apples,
rescued a number of kites,
bipperty, bopperty bouncing,
through hot days and long nights.

He thought about being a superhero,
bouncing into danger and stuff,
but the villains in his home town,
well, they really weren’t that tough.

Boing, boing, boink, Connor O’Donoghue,
even put kangaroos to shame,
bouncing, jumping, hopping,
no two leaps the same.

Next, he did a painting,
on the ceiling of the museum,
all in dot form of course!
Man, you ought to see ‘em!

In footy he took speckies,
that will never be beat,
leaping so high,
he had to fall from the sky,
just to catch the ball at his feet.

“Wait, wait, wait!” everyone cried,
as Cooper bounced helicopter to plane!
“You’re having too much fun!
It makes us all feel lame!”

What a silly reason to not do something,
the boy with springs for feet thought,
as he bounced across a pond,
catching fish as he went, of course!

Still the doubters persisted,
chasing Cooper here and there,
laying bear traps on the ground,
and safety nets up in the air!

The chased him to the circus,
where he jumped about the big tent,
over strongmen, performing lions,
magicians and clowns as he went!

Gradually a sight emerged,
of a mob in hot pursuit,
of a little boy having a ball,
bouncing from roof to roof!

Finally, they caught Cooper O’Donoghue,
when he stopped for lunch,
putting him down underground (underground train station),
where if he jumped he would crunch!

Cooper, ever defiant, leaped,
ricocheting like a pinball,
bouncing off walls, trains, lolly machines,
before popping out of a shopping mall!

Determined to do his own thing,
down the highway he went,
bouncing towards the desert,
with a backpack, some water, a tent!

Out there it was oh, so quiet,
nobody to give him grief,
nothing to bump his head on,
his own commander and chief.

Soon, he bounce to a small town,
the likes of which he’d never seen!
Where grand ideas were encouraged,
and nobody was ever mean!

With those two simple principles,
nobody could ever lose,
ideas lead to more ideas,
that flowed out from the schools.

Kids in underwater submarines,
made from recycled glass,
pogo sticks attached to your pants,
spinning disks powered by farts.

Underwear with music built in,
your pants always ready to dance.
A machine that rebuilt forests,
if you but fed it some plants.

A girl wearing a suit of light bulbs,
known as the Moth King at night,
a crocodile in bathtub with wheels,
a boy who’d discovered flight.

The boy with spring legs fit in,
bouncing and leaping about,
trading stories, inventions,
by the fire when they camped out.

But Cooper O’Donoghue got restless,
once more bouncing away,
“New adventures!” he cried. “Onward!”

forever glad for each day…

 

The End