Wild

Alpha and Omega

Zebras and aardvarks co-exist on the Savannah Plain. Zebra foals may or may not get into aardvark holes. (No information found on this subject.) They are named after the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet in this poem as aardvark and zebra start with the first and last letters of our alphabet.

Old Alpha is an aardvark,
Who lives on lots of ants.
Young zebra foal Omega,
Can eat a lot of plants.
Old Alpha sleeps the day through
And hunts when there’s no light.
Omega plays the whole day
And likes to sleep at night.

Old Alpha hunts by moonlight
When Omega is homebound,
Each night he looks for anthills
Or for a termite mound,
He opens them and inserts
His elephantine nose,
His long proboscis sucks them
Just like a vacuum hose.

When soldier ants are marching
Most animals retreat,
Alpha is the only one
Who thinks they’re good to eat,
When he’s eaten lots of them,
A yummy ant buffet,
Alpha digs a hole to sleep
Throughout the coming day.

Most zebras herd together
But Ome loved to run
Exploring the Savannah
Adventure was such fun
Each day he ventured farther,
 The miles just flew away
Until one day he found that
 He'd really lost his way

Hyenas, lions and leopards
 All roam at night out back
They'd all like tender zebra
It makes a juicy snack
Old Alpha in his burrow,
Could hear the frightened cry
He poked his head outside and
Saw Omega nearby.

 “Hey, zebra foal, what's up there,”
Said Alpha in his hole,
“Them carnivores will eat you,
They all love zebra foal.
They’ll stay till you are eaten,
They’ll overeat and laze
And I’ll be stuck in this hole
Without an ant for days".

“I’ll dig my burrow deeper
So you can come and hide
We'll snuggle close together
In shelter side by side.”
Old Alpha set to digging
And kept his aardvark word.
Omega was safe till he
Was rescued by the herd.

Note to Park Rangers:

When counting herds of zebra,
Don’t undercount the foals
As baby zebras sometimes,
May hide in aardvark holes

Caterpillars

  

A Monarch Butterfly Caterpillar on Milkweed.

We are crawly caterpillars
Scared of caterpillar killers
Toads and lizards love to eat us
Birds and ducks also defeat us
Pesticides can decimate us
Someone please call a hiatus
We will give you a surprise
When we change to butterflies.

Birds Watching

Birds of a feather sitting together,

In dreary weather

On tiny telephone lines

None of them singing, nor any swinging

Cleverly clinging

To tiny telephone lines

Does interaction give satisfaction

Watching the action

From tiny telephone lines?

No longer alone chilled to the bone

Thanks to the phone

And tiny telephone lines.