A Flittery Fluttery Fruit Bat

Australia is sleeping safe and sound

Lights are off and there’s snoring all round

Bingo and I asleep in bed

Resting our full up weary heads

I still have fruit bats on my mind

But now my Mum told me it’s bedtime

I try hard to rest and dream of my friends

But this fruit bat dream never ends

I wake up to see a shining light

Through the window, shining bright

I sit up and shield my eyes in disbelief

Is this spark supposed to be grief?

Without any warning, I reach the light

It feels a little hot and white

My hand burns, steam comes out

I still want to see what it all is about

So I reach out again, a bit slower this time

And you’ll never guess what happens in this rhyme…

I become a fruit bat, a flittery fluttery fruit bat

A fruit bat, and that is that

A craving for fruit, a love for the sky

A blue dot noticeable by the winking eye

I fly in the night with my brethren of bats

Over houses and garages and flats

Until I come to the sacred Daintree

The perfect place for a fruit bat like me

I grab a banana and start to eat

The bat eats with me, it can’t be beat

I eat bananas at home, this one’s even tastier

My dad says, “Bananas. They don’t go to waste here!”

I throw the skin to the floor and burp,

Pardon me, I think it was a rude word

Suddenly, I hear laughing from nearby

It was those four kids from next door, oh my!

They were hanging upside down on a nearby branch

So I went to ask them what’s up with the laughs

Sybil said “You’re no fruit bat here!”

“Yeah, you’re not a bat as you appear,”

Says Cleo, “I think you’re a useless bat,

You don’t have wings and that is that!”

“But I can fly!” I say, “It’s just a dream!”

“Of course,” says Resus, “But I think it seems

You’re a really awesome fruit bat,

You’re six years old and that is that

You can fit in with fruit bats and that’s fine,

So come and join us for a bit of flying!”

So off we flew across the sea,

Luke, Resus, Cleo, Sybil and me

We whooped and soared through the sky

As other fruit bats flew by

We saw dolphins jumping in and out

And lots of little fish splashing about

My arms were getting tired there

I still had some more to bare

Resus called out to me “Keep up!”

But still, I was one lucky pup

I had more breath and speed to go

So I just had to go with the flow

We flew into America over Grand Ridge

And down into the canyon where rivers housed fish

We flew through the canyon walls,

Screaming and yelling and calling fruit bat calls

But I was getting left behind

Luke, Resus and Cleo? Away they fly,

With Sybil flying with them free

My flying powers had gone away from me

And there I was, stuck in mid-air,

Suddenly, I fall down there!

Down and down and down I fall

Past the thick brown canyon walls,

Until I land in the river and sink

I had no thoughts left to think

As I sailed downstream in the dark of night

My eyes were heavy and not so bright

I sailed for hours in the rapid tides

Until I got washed up on the other side

I lie unconscious, a bat call in my head

As I try to return home in my mind to my bed…

But I stand in darkness before a light

A loud screech calls out through the night

Out of the darkness comes a shape

It’s not an eagle or an ape

It’s a fruit bat, huger than Dad

The hugest fruit bat I ever had

Seen in my life, my eyes filled with tears

I’ve never seen a fruit bat this big for years,

So I turn around and stretch out my hands

The bat does too, its has tinier hands

Because his arms are taken with huge wings

I am now thinking about other things…

In the morning, Mum came in my room

But I was too sleepy to wake up soon,

I was lying with my arms outstretched

And my mouth open wide like I was about to play fetch

Bingo asks, “Mum, is Bluey awake just then?”

Mum just replies, “Fruit bats again.”