Ken Lonnquist Songbook
Dagger
Deadly Levels Of Gas
Decimal Cat
Desire
Do You?
Dog Olympics, The
Doin' The Dishes
Dolphins And The Mermaid
Down The Railroad Track
Dragon Snout Snuffed
Dagger (LSK)
Dagger is a kitty cat.
He's big and soft and tan and fat.
He wanders all around the house
Safari-hunting for a mouse!
Mousey, mousey, whiskers gray
You'd better watch your tail!
Mousey, mousy, night and day
My cat follows your trail!
Dagger doesn't make a sound
As he sniffs and creeps around
But when you think the coast is clear
He may be lurking very near!
If you hide inside your hole
You wont make Dagger's belly full...
But if outside your hole you run
Your stealing-cheese-days may be done!
Deadly Levels Of Gas (ES)
Deadly levels of gas deadly levels of gas
Eight million homes in America
Have deadly levels of gas
It use to be a problem we were willing to let pass
But now its gone too far
As weve got deadly levels of gas!
Its not the kind youre thinking of!
You know I wouldnt be crass!
You dont need beans in your blue jeans
To get deadly levels of gas!
Chorus
Radon underneath your home
Is where the trouble starts
The gas builds up, and Earth lets rip
With seismological farts!
And then the news will circulate
Till everyone knows, at last:
Your homes no longer liveable
'Cause of deadly levels of gas!
Decimal Cat (VF)
Decimal Cat never got fat
Ate up to a point, and that was that
Fraction Kitty, sittin' pretty
Never ever ate the whole thing, did he?
Went fishin', caught himself a salmon
Made a sandwich, cheese, lettuce and ham 'n
Cut it up in half and then
He shared his ham 'n salmon sandwich with a friend
Each got half, none got whole
None got fat, but both got full
Caught a tuna, swallowed up its tail
Put the other portion in a pail
Ate a fifth, saved the rest
For the pretty little kitty he liked best
Ate point-two, saved point-eight
To share point-four on a midnight date!
Nabbed a rainbow trout, and started nibblin'
Neighbor cats droolin' and dribblin'
Longed to have a bit of fish
Fraction Kitty didn't mind sharin' his dish
26 bites, two apiece
13 cats at a feline feast
Desire (J)
Biding my time, smoking whats mine,
Listening to the whistle blow
Train leaving town, wish I was bound for to go
On a train called Desire
Where they stoke the coals to set your heart afire
It aint for theives, fools or liars
No, you must be true for love to come to you
I been alone, far from my home,
Far from anything called love
But theres still hope, stars rung with smoke up above
From a train called Desire
All I want... all I need
All I ever wanted was a love for me
Here I am... set me free
Roll out the track, no turning back,
Let the starlit fields unfurl
I see my dream drift through the steam-
Clouds that swirl
Do You? (SFHF)
In India I met a toothy tiger
Wandering the wild Bengali Plain
She looked at me with jaws opening wider
Than they should be for friendship to remain
I asked her, "Do you like lunch? Do you? Do You?
Do you make the bones crunch? Do you? Do You?
Do you munch 'em a bunch? Do you? Do You?
I've got a hunch you do
The tiger smiled sweetly at my question
Wagged a sharp foreclaw as if to say:
"Eating children gives me indigestion."
But I did not believe her anyway
Tiger wasn't happy --- Sharpened her claws
Started gettin' snappy --- Opened her jaws
Wider and wider --- Stripes on her back
Could have pulled me inside her
Might have made me a snack
But turning tail, she left me, bone and marrow
Sniffed, and lifting her nose in the air
Said, "Your attitude is rude and narrow.
Unworthy of my dinner," she declared.
'Cause I asked her,
"Do you like lunch? Do you? Do You?
The Dog Olympics (TCK)
Written with students at Farmington Elem, Farmington, MN
There's lots of neat events
Competition is intense
All the dogs are at the Dog Olympics
Theyre barking and they're sniffing
They're power leg-lifting
Woof! Woof! Woof! Bark! Bark! Bark!
The dogs are at the Olympic Park!
If they win they take home
A gold or a silver or a bronze milk-bone!
There's dog paddling races
Chewing through shoe laces
Theyre chasing cats around
Digging holes in the ground
Every dog has got a dream:
Win the gold and host a talk show
Barking all day on TV
Just like Oprah and Geraldo
There's a bone tug of war
Scratching at the door
They're slurping from their dishes
Rolling in dead fishes
Doin' The Dishes (LSK)
Written with Natalie, age 5, as we cleaned up!
We had some quesadillas,
We had some refried beans
We dirtied up our dishes,
Now we gotta get 'em clean
Were doin' the dishes: Scrub! Rub! Rack!
Scrubbin and a-rubbin
And were doin' all the dishes, now!
We had some long spaghetti...
The sauce was really keen!
We dirtied all our plates
And now we gotta get 'em clean!
What do you get when you use a fork?
A dirty fork!
What do you get when you use a spoon?
A dirty spoon!
What do you get when you use a glass?
A dirty glass!
You just can't leave 'em like that! No!
We had some rice with tofu,
Some oriental greens
We dirtied up our chopsticks
Now we gotta get 'em clean!
The Dolphins And The Mermaid (LSK)
Oh, the Dolphins and the Mermaid
they'll be coming here tonight
For they know quite well
that you've been feeling bad...
They've been listening to the seashells,
they've been talking to the waves
And they understand the things that make you sad...
They'll tell you they are different,
but they dont even care
The things that matter aren't the things we see
It's what we have inside us: the Mermaid, you and me
And the Dolphins swimming deep beneath the Sea!
cannot speak the way we do
But they get along quite well in their own way...
For the Dolphins have a different voice,
the Mermaid none at all
So she'll use her hands to sign what she would say
The Dolphins and the Mermaid
cannot run like me and you
But they're faster and they're stronger anyway...
And although the Dolphins have no legs,
fins are all they need
To race and swim and circle as they play...
Down the Railroad Track (W2K)
I crawled out of bed
When the moon lit my room
Pulled on my jeans and my shoes
Leaned out the window
And swung down a tree
Just as an owl asked, "Whooooo?"
Off in the distance a train whistle blew
Soft on the wind through my yard
I walked to the back through a hole in the fence
Then I followed the Moon and a Star...
Goin' walkin' down the railroad track
Goin' walkin' and I won't come back
Gonna build myself a hobo shack
Down by the railroad track
Late tonight I'm gonna steal away
And walk the rail till the break of day
If they're gonna treat me this way
I'm gonna steal away
And sing all night... I'll sing all night
Round a campfire light
Where the moon shines bright
I'll sing all night
Gonna climb behind a big smokestack
And listen to the rails click and clack
I'll go so far away I can't come back
And dream all night... I'll dream all night
I'll dream all night
Dragon Snout Snuffed (VF out-take)
Written with 1st graders _ Bacon Elem, Ft. Collins, CO
A fire-breathing Dragon lived under a bridge
in a lost kingdom far away
His favorite food was spaghetti and kids
so the kids wisely ran far away
The Dragon grew weary of pasta, no meat
and longingly licked on the bones
Kept in a pile, still savory and sweet
with the juice of the meals hed once known
Early one morning out of the mist
a Unicorn came prancing by
Said the meat-thirsty Dragon, smacking his lips,
"In my Dragon-fires she'll fry!"
Yo ho! Run little Unicorn! Yo ho! Run far away
Yo ho! Run little Unicorn!
Run like the wind while you may
Bridge timbers trembled, he bellowed & roared. Cruel lips smacking, he hissed,
"Meat and spaghetti Ill savor once more
Though kids are a flavor Ill miss."
The desperate Unicorn hatched an idea
inspired by reflections below
In the still water pooled under the bridge.
She knew dragons tend to be slow
"Psst!" she confided, "Youre really in luck!
Look! In the pool down there
A water-bourn Unicorn, ready to pluck!
Theyre the tastiest and the most rare!water-bourn Unicorns best!
Put your snout in the water! Their savory meat is sweeter, by far, than the rest!
His nostrils flared red. He thrust his head deep He opened his jaws for a bite
The instant he did his snout-fires were snuffed and snuffed nostrils cant reignite
Dragons are fussy in matters of meat. With noses upturned they will spurn
Any least morsel, the tenderest treat if not fully blackened and burned
So he slunk away, head hung in defeat resigned to eat flowers and ferns
The Unicorn lived, and our storys complete, for the wandering children returned!
She said, "If it's Unicorn you wish to eat,
The water-bourn Unicorn's best!
Put your snout in the water! Their savory meat
is sweeter, by far, than the rest!"
His nostrils flared red. He thrust his head deep
He opened his jaws for a bite
But the instant he did his snout-fires were snuffed
and snuffed nostrils can't reignite
Dragons are fussy in matters of meat.
With noses upturned they will spurn
Any least morsel, the tenderest treat
if not fully blackened and burned
So he slunk away, head hung in defeat
resigned to eat flowers and ferns
The Unicorn lived, and our story's complete,
for the wandering children returned!
