THERE WAS NOBODY THERE

I woke up one night--there was nobody there"" is just the first of 15 rhymed lines which start with the little girl's exploration of her empty house, then drift off into fanciful imaginings: ""I was at the North Pole, just me and my bear. . . . I arrived at the moon--there was nobody there. I cried all alone, 'Doesn't anyone care?'"" But then Mama comes home, explaining, ""I was just out somewhere. But you weren't all alone. Your papa was there'--snoozing, viewers now see, in the patio rocker. The verse flows along, the situation is a recognizably anxious one, but it's all a bit slick. Well-devised, but there isn't much there.