A Partial Bestiary (For my Great-niece, Allison)

For my niece, Allison

Aardvark

The aardvark’s worthy of our praise His name begins with a pair of a’s He is clever, suave and svelte The classiest creature on the veldt.

He loves to go and eat his fill At a convenient termite hill This is really no malarkey He can’t help being aardvarky.

The butterfly’s a killer diller He starts life as a caterpillar But then he tires of that state And decides that he’ll pupate.

Then he hatches and the guy Becomes an adult butterfly And the name for all this is Complete metamorphosis.

The chimpanzee lives in a tree He does not know astronomy He is brave and he is bold And clever as a five year old.

He wears a brightly hued bandanna And eats a yellow ripe banana If I could choose, I would not be A creature like the chimpanzee.

Behold the friendly crocodile He always greets you with a smile But do not ask him for a ride Or you may wind up inside.

If you meet him by a pool Just apply the golden rule Do not annoy him in his pride Lest you end in his inside.

It’s very impolite to laugh At the long neck of the giraffe The reason why he is so tall Need not then concern us at all.

He likes to eat the topmost branches And read boring, cheap romances And it’s interesting and true He has a real stupendous view.

A furry animal is the gnu He does not look like me or you For lions, he’s a tasty feast And also called the wildebeest.

He always travels in a herd To try to change him is absurd It isn’t profitable, it’s true To have a friend who is a gnu.

The hummingbird came down the line Of blossoms on the trumpet vine Hummingbird, green one, I do find Your flight a metaphor for the mind.

Pirouetting, quick as a wink As fast as the mind can think Each migration do you go Across the Gulf of Mexico.

The kangaroo she is no slouch She keeps her children in a pouch The children aren’t very showy And each of them is called a joey.

The kangaroo she likes to bound And covers lots and lots of ground She likes to go out to a ball Like any good marsupial.

Look how the foolish ostrich stands With its head beneath the sands The reason why is hard to say But he does it anyway.

The ostrich lies on desert plains To be oblivious he feigns But it would be quite absurd To imitate this silly bird.

Behold the bird known as the owl He loves to eat both fish or fowl And does his hunting all the night And he finds that quite all right.

The owl, they say, is very wise And easy is to recognize And the bird is nearly mute Except when he will give a hoot.

A funny creature is the seal It doesn’t have much sex appeal It doesn’t wear expensive clothes But balances a ball upon its nose.

The seals live in big colonies Which practically obstruct the breeze You ask what is their favorite dish It is, you’re right, a plate of fish.

The spider’s a creature very great The number of his legs is eight He spins a web to catch his prey And so he lives from day to day

When he has a fine web spun He likes to bask beneath the sun You won’t believe it till you’ve tried a Friend as useful as a spider

A lovely creature is the vulture He is an advocate of culture He likes it not if you ask why He spends his days up in the sky.

The vulture dives upon the dead Which is one way to get ahead It would be better if he could sing And get his meals at Burger King.

The whale’s the biggest one of all His spout is like a waterfall He does not use an escalator And mostly lives near the equator.

To see a whale is quite a treat He grows up to a hundred feet He is not a rank landlubber And people hunt him for his blubber.

The zebra’s coat is black on white Or white and black Is he a sight!!