Camelopard

Giraffes are rather weak and awkward things.

Those tall skinny beasts eat the tops of trees.

The brown speckled sovereign of height

was once strangely called the camelopard,

because it looks a bit like a stretched and

squished together giant camel-leopard.

The spotted cat is a fierce-fast land mass,

and yet, I bet, that African crane could

beat a leopard across a deep river dash.

With its boney legs, this awkward thing

can only jump three-feet-three-inches-high;

but at night, the camel-o-par-dalis

towers among the star strung animals.

They do not have sharp horns atop their heads,

or sharp teeth, because they eat grass and trees.

But the giraffe, you see, does not need

mouth-weapons, because it fights with its head,

unlike other beasts who use paws and teeth.

It has been said that one swing of its head

can break the backs of lions and tigers.

And now, consider the wrinkled tortoise.