Knock, knock, let me in.
Tell your tale. Please begin.
My name is Barley Methedrine.
Oh no, Barley Methedrine, it's not.
Your name is Sorghum Apricot.
You put too much import in a name.
In the grand scheme, it's all the same.
Tell me what it is you do.
I'm chief superintendent of the zoo.
Oh no, you play drums, and study law,
and your name is Winston Panama.
True, but that was in my other life.
In this one, I play clarinet and fife,
and I must ask you to get into the sack.
A spiny anteater I lack.
That's the first thing you must do.
You'll be a fine specimen for my zoo.
ANTS EDGING LIFE
Ants quickly crawling,
An anteater chasing them;
Mountain edge ahead:-
BITTERSWEET
Ants sweetly eating,
Hungry anteater watching:
Bitterness coming:-
Ants quickly crawling,
An anteater chasing them;
Their cliff’s edge ahead:-
In an alphabet book that my grandson once liked,
One page unfamiliar to me
Which, in turn, got my curiosity spiked,
Was the animal listed for P.
For a pangolin isn’t your average beast,
But an anteater covered in scales,
Looking quite prehistoric from head to, not least
Of its features, those long spiky nails.
It waddles in search of its main source of food,
For which it employs every sense,
Yet if threatened, it is very quickly subdued;
Curling up is its only defense.
I learned all about this today on TV,
But I’m glad that awareness was raised
In an alphabet book on which, ages ago,
Both my grandson and I once had gazed.
A trail of sugar,
invites ants to crawl along:
anteater waiting:-
Anteater had Covid and no one would come over
Swan ran toward his house with her pet dragonfly Clover.
They brought him ants freshly picked from the fallen log.
He was excited to see them, and so was Chester, his dog.
Thank you for coming! Do you want something to eat?
I wouldn’t! Warned a scurrying corner-hugging mouse.
Of course, they did not want food from this germy house
But the generous anteater’s gesture was sweet.
Anteater guy swings his two tiny 'shrooms
They toss and sway like willow tree blooms
We watch him waddle on down the road
Probably to visit his cousin spotted toad.
He is so dreamy my cousin Suzette said.
I am shocked at her idea – is she crazed in the head.
You don’t mean Anteater guy! I incredulously say
Who else? She asks as she watches him waddle away.
Paula the pangolin polished her scaly skin
Went to the market and traded her mandolin
Told the shopkeeper, “I’ll swap for a mandarin,
Oranges are a bit big for a pangolin.”
The shopkeeper gave her the requisite fruit
And said, “Would you sell me your anteater suit?”
Paula said, “It’s not a suit and I’m ravenous,
Ive got a space in my tummy that’s cavernous.”
The shopkeeper said, “But it’s fruit that you’ve got,
Unless you’re a vegan you eat bugs… a lot!”
Paula said, “You’ve just used citrus as cash,
So don’t you judge me as I do something rash.”
She headed outside and said grace to her God
And stamped on the mandarin, til it was trod
The shopkeeper rushed out in anger fuelled haste,
And shouted, “You could have at least had a taste.
“Just look at the juice as it trickles away,
I now wish that I hadn’t served you today.”
“You’re wasting good food,” was the worst of his rants
Til Paula the pangolin said, “Oh look… ants!”
Sir! You Have Besmirched the Good Name Of My Pangolin
Nothing can be the same now -
before the recent pandemic
my companion Pangolin
Boris and I,
were carefree,
and happily plying our trade
as chimney sweeps in Siberia,
but since the ‘great lie’
we dare not show our faces
in any town or city,
for they have labeled Boris; a good, kind,
not too gentle creature
as a SPREADER'!
O the calumny. the infamy the inaccuracy!
Now our only recourse
is to have him dress up as an Anteater
and move to Bolivia.
Mrs. Suzie Q. Anteater will take the lead, Ms. Gerbil said.
If I try to take over she might thump me hard on the head.
We did not know what she was talking about, what did she know?
We saw them parading down to town, going kind of ploddish and slow.
I told you she’d take over, Ms. Gerbil’s eyes seemed to say.
This made us laugh a little bit into our hankies that day.
Mrs. Suzie Q. Anteater is the mother of eight or nine.
You’d best do what she says and stand straight in her line.
The anteater
gets to
stick out
its tongue...
What fun!
Spiky hair.
Brittle.
Porcupine,
hedgehog,
spiny anteater
echidna,
kid.
Grow up prickly.
Grow up quick.
They raze -
rib dig.
Hurts in his alphabet soup.
Jeers jar.
quills quiver.
Curled up,
face tucked
into heart.
Anteater’s ideas are absolute.
Buff-cheeked gibbon gives them a toot.
Tree kangaroo throws down a shoot.
Peacock pheasant gives them the boot.
I run away with all of their loot.
I am kind of a robber galoot.
Hildy Honey Badger was mad as unleavened beer hops
Alice her American Cousin said that she was tops
How dare you she said, and you are a carnivore too!
The bells I am said Alice. I’m an omnivore like you!
They decided not to speak any more that day on Zoom.
Hildy went around slapping everyone else in the room.
What did we do? They asked, astounded at her action.
I am angry with my cousin. Slapping gives me satisfaction!
Next Hildy got mad at Wilma Weasel, a distant Aunt.
So she slammed the fish out of their tank and kicked a plant.
The rest of the badgers ran out, giving her plenty of space.
By supper she had thrown up a hundred earth worms, a disgrace.
Is it safe to come back? Asked her neighbor, anteater Girdle.
I doubt it, the rest of them said and we are cooking a turtle.
They stayed out of the moorlands for a day and a night.
While Hildy Honey Badger destroyed every dhramned thing in sight.
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