When Alice, Alice and Alice
travelled to the Redwater
they always took the agile route

past the soda stall

Each had a Moroccan appearance
even though they had been born
on the Manchester Road

morocco was their mothers favoured country

They were all in fine health
until the sixteenth of each month
when they hovered near death
by the nineteenth they were well again

Each Alice had a brother called Phillip
who in turn had five sisters called Sissy
none were good swimmers
but they all insisted on swimming the channel for fun

The event was arduous and long
but they passed the time
by reading cheap thrillers
from their library

They all admired Major Paul
who lived in the great house
on the edge of town
with his collection of pheasants

He was a pleasant chap
well spoken and brave
who had once rescued a Mountain Goat
from certain death on an average hill

Each of the sisters married
in their twenty-fifth year
their husbands were Greek
and experts on the Beaufort Scale

The only exception was Lucy
who eloped with Major Paul
to the cellar of his house
where they lived happily for many years

Sisters Sissy each remained unmarried
And stayed with their brothers translating the Roman poets
with the exception of Juvenal
who was translated elsewhere

All the sisters and all the brothers
reached their hundredth year
and died of diseases from A to Z
with the exception of Alice

who now lives with Major Paul