Cora’s Zoo Adventure

I took young Cora to the zoo, For she had never been

It seemed to me the thing to do Since she had never seen

A hippo or a crocodile Or even a giraffe

Nor caught a python’s winsome smile Nor heard a baboon’s sweet laugh

Cora Conn was quite impressed With the elephant’s toenail

And the way the penguin dressed In starched white shirt and tail.

She liked a lot the long-plumed birds It didn’t take her long

To translate into human words The meaning of their song

Cora Conn is very smart And soon she had a chat

On the finer points of abstract art With a friendly jungle cat.

Then in the heat of hot debate On what life is all about

With a philosophical primate The ape said, “let me out.”

So Cora claims, and I hesitate To say her words are bunk

’Cause Cora always tells it straight And I cannot speak monk.

With a piece of wire Cora found She unlocked the monkey cage

And off they went with a spring and a bound Which made the keeper rage.

He had a scowl upon his face, His anger was quite plain

He ordered Cora to leave the place And not come back again

Cora’s trouble is she knows

Much more thanother folk

Like when Santa does his ho-ho-hos Only Cora gets the joke

It’s not that easy being bright In fact, it’s pretty rough

Nobody ever thinks you’re right When you tell them real smart stuff

I said, “Here’s your chance to show you’re sage Just use that monkey lingo

To get the apes back in the cage And then they’d know, by jingo.”

Well, Cora did not wait She wandered over far and wide

To find each peregrinating primate And get all back inside

Chattering chimp and muttering monk And babbling baboon, too,

She persuaded every long-armed lunk To go back to the zoo

All but one, a big brown ape With a huge and ugly head,

The one who’d planned the whole escape “You’ll never catch me,” he said.

But when Cora thinks, there is no doubt She’ll come up with a plan

“Too bad, I guess you’ll just miss out On the tea and jam, my man.”

Now apes, she knew, or so she said, Though rough and awful hairy,

Love to have some bread and spread, And their favorite jam is cherry

And all the time I’d always thought Bananas were their deal

But Cora said they’re simply not, Jam’s got more appeal

The beast began to pace a lot

His hands commencedto quaver

When Cora said the jam they’d got was the big ape’s favorite flavour

But the final thing that won the day And put the ape back under key

Was when Cora said: “Oh, by the way, We’re serving Earl Grey tea”

As Cora promised, no expense was spared For the party in the primates’ cage

And, amazed, the papers all declared It was the social season’s rage

Now I cannot swear it was this way But Cora says it’s so

Cora’s Zoo AdventureAnd she told me the very next day So I thought I’d let you know.

#POETRYFORKIDS