I thought it rather strange today,
When visiting the zoo,
To find the creatures living there,
Are just like me and you.
So wild and acrobatic,
The monkeys in their cage,
Delight in swinging high and low,
Performers on a stage.
Dignified and tall,
The penguins on the ice,
Waiters in their black and white,
Proper and precise.
Gazelles turn together,
A troupe of graceful, dancing girls,
Synchronised and slender,
Performing plies, jumps and twirls.
Poor zebras are the prisoners,
Condemned for life, you know,
Their classic uniform of stripes,
Truly marks them so.
The above are the first five verses of ‘The Zoo’. In the sixth verse, the poet states he would like to write more verses for sloths, tigers, elephants and dinosaurs, but he did not have time. Therefore, I wrote them for the author as well as a new ending.
The nature-watcher sloth
Watches the sky and a bird.
Meanwhile, he also watches the ground
Rarely seeing a deer herd.
Born soldiers of a distant jungle,
The gang of tigers armed,
Stalk through enemy territory,
Causing hostile inhabitants to be harmed.
The elephants fight in a competition,
Making sure not to cause harm
Or any upset,
Only using their wrestling arm.
Mighty T-Rex to gentle Diplodocus,
Every single dino
Has a talent for stilt-walking,
They just can’t say no!
I’d surely make some more metaphors
(If I had time)
For dolphins, bears, snakes
And evil creatures of slime.