Fastest Living Thing

A swift running athlete, on two fleet-feet, Runs twenty miles an hour. A galloping horse runs a faster course; His hoofs a pounding power. Still faster is the deer traveling in fear. At fifty he looks around, To see a cheetah display seventy to catch its prey. He’s the fastest four-footer found. For greater speeds, the sky favors fowls that fly, With vultures venturing ninety. Alas, the golden eagle, sleek and regal, zooms to one-twenty, looming mighty. But the falcon hawk, ballistic trim, lets gravity work for him In a vertical dive. His feathers fairly whistle, for he’s a flying missile— at one-sixty, the fastest thing alive!