Ansi Animals

ANSI Animals
D. Titchenell Aug. 10, 1990

Fiona's books show ducks and hares,
Gorillas, pigs and panda bears.
It looked a useful thing to do
--To take them with us to the zoo.

It seems that everywhere we go
There is so very much to know
And every single creature there
Was formed with some creative flair.

A camel? -- no that isn't true
Mine's got one hump, you've got two.
This illustrator had some fun
My rhino's two horned, you have one.

A huge black pig, that can't be right
My pig's small and cute and white.
This parrot's like the one I saw
But here they call it a macaw.

The alligator's traits confuse
I try to find what I should use
To tell him from the crocodile.
Mommy says its in the smile.

But for students tempted to despair
Of coping with creative flair
Science, in time, perchance may yield
A means to simplify the field.

For Uncle Bob says: once man gleans
The key to chromosomes and genes,
I shouldn't be at all surprised
If all the beasts were standardized.

My grandmother wanted me to have an education, so she kept me out of school. -Margaret Mead

The simplest schoolboy is now familiar with truths for which Archimedes would have sacrificed his life. - Ernest Renan