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Animals Are Like Humans
Bewailed an ostrich tirelessly:
Two wings I have but still can’t fly.
Daily I stare dumbly at the sky,
asking What’s it doing there and Why?
Even the lion, king of beasts,
growls bitterly that it was born
a lion and not a rare white unicorn!
A mane the lion has but not a horn.
The leopard, too, is not content –
his spots are making him neurotic
and when he tries to hide he can’t
because he’s always spotted.
The elephant is grumpy,
being huge is an embarrassement;
his need for tons of food when hungry
is a daily disparagement.
The bactrian camel is two-humped
why that is, he’s profoundly stumped.
He envies the one-hump dromedary
and says nature is unfair and arbitrary.
The tiny ant likewise is angry,
it would so much prefer to be
a snail or sloth – all that industry
replaced with lethargy!
And bees are near to desperation –
they’ve had enough with making honey,
they’d rather work at making money
or a more lucrative occupation.
The hippo envies the sleek gazelle.
To leap and bounce would boost his pride.
That he’s as wide as he is tall
only has him mortified.
The rhino’s not much better off.
Weighing like a military tank
with armored plates on either flank,
and a horn atop his nose is bad enough.
The hyiena’s laugh is its despair.
Other creatures wince in shock
when they hear it in the dark.
The hyiena’s a laughing stock.
And then there’s the penguin’s waddle
brought on by temperatures frigid;
he wishes he were a hot water bottle
he’d walk, he thinks, less rigid.
The skunk believes it’s been cursed
with an odor it deems the worst.
And many a predator has taken flight
when sprayed and lost its appetite.
Despite complaints, strong and loud,
all creatures listed here are proud
to be as just as they are, not human
be they man or woman.
Copyright ©
Maurice Rigoler
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