I saw a mother in a shop
With her little son
They browsed along the shelves of bears
He said, ‘I want this one’

‘No you don’t,’ said the mum
‘It’s ugly and it’s plain,
This one here tells the time
And this one plays a game

This one rides a motorbike
He beeps and speeds along
This one growls and this one snores
And this one sings a song

The boy was having none of this
He’d found the bear he liked
He’d made a choice and stuck to it
The bear was his for life

‘What’s wrong with it?’ he asked his mum
She told him it was cheap
‘The eyes are off, the nose is wrong,
The seams aren’t nice and neat’

He hugged the plain bear to his chest
His mum said, ‘Put it back’
Eventually she wrenched it free
And plonked it on the stack

She picked a bigger, better bear
And put it in her trolley
The boy looked at the bear he loved
And whispered, ‘I am sorry’

The mother dragged the boy away
Still waving to his bear
I watched his tragic face turn pale
And thought it so unfair

I took the plain bear to the till
They put it in a bag
I ran out to the car park
Where I thrust it on the lad
‘I work for the shop,’ I said
‘There’s an offer on, you see,
If you bought a bear today
It’s buy one, get one free.’