Mouths Of Hippopotami And Some Recent Novels

 (with apologies to Frederic Taber Cooper)

I well recall (and who does not)
The circus bill-board hippopotamus,
whose wide distended jaws
For fear and terror were good cause.


That month, that vasty carmine cave,
Could munch with ease a Nubian slave;
In fact, the bill-board hippopot-
amus could bolt a house and lot!

Wide opened, that tremendous mouth
Obscured three-quarters of the south
Side of Schmidt’s barn, and promised me
Thrills, shocks, delights and ecstasy.


And then, alas! what sad non plus
The living hippopotamus!
’Twas but a stupid, sodden lump
As thrilling as an old elm stump.


Its mouth—unreasonably small—
The hippo opened not at all,
Or, if it did, it was about
As thrilling as a teapot spout.


* * * * *

The Crimson Junk, by Doris Watt,
I’ve read it.
 Who, I pray, has not?
Bill Wastel, by C.
 Marrow.
 The
Plaid Cowslip.
 And The Hocking Lee.


The Fallow Field, by Sally Loo;
The Rose in Chains.
 I’ve read that too;
I’ve read them all for promised treat
Of thrills, emotions, tremblings sweet.


* * * * *

The bill-board hippopotamus
It was a wild, uprageous cuss—
The real one? Well—Can you recall
That it had any mouth at all?

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