The Boat Race

They are cheering on the shore
As each panda takes his oar;
They are gathered by the river for the race.
But the starter waves his flag
And a boat beings to sag,
For the elephants are filling every place!
But they keep themselves afloat
In their wobbly little boat,
And are past the panda crew around the creek.
But then nosy Mrs. Stork
Interrupts them for a talk
And they find their boat has sprung a leak;
As they bumped against a bank,
It was quite clear they had sank-
But a hippo thought he had have a little joke;
With their boat upon his back,
He soon kept them on their track,
And they didn’t even have to make a stroke!
But this wasn’t really fair-
There were boos from everywhere,
As they passed the panda boat without a care.
Then the hippo had a fall
And a cheer went up from all,
For they fell into the water then and there!
So the pandas won the day
And were winners all the way
They rowed towards the finish for their prize.
It was given to their cox,
Who was wily Mr. Fox,
He said: “Oh, what a wonderful surprise.”
For it was a picnic tea
Laid upon the grass, you see,
For the panda crew and Fox to share that day.
And the elephants who sunk
Had some biscuits in each trunk-
Even hippo had a bun to take away!

∼ Porter G., Hilda Offen, Pradera, Esme Eve, Alan Jesset, Richard Hooke