The Beaver is making his digs
Indirectly assisting Hippos ferrying over
Desert Dunes near the banks amongst twigs
What? A new pipeline crossing, Dude!
Floating on the Nile the
Beaver slaps its tail
It booms
The sound from that slap sends
Fear across its neighbours
A tail always ready to whack
A tail threatened can overreact.
What to do? What for?
Spit out some Cold Peanuts -or just any plain ol' nut
Step and crunch on it
There's a buzz overhead
Just by the shore.
Fire! Bang Bang! Let's even the score.
We are south of the Straight of Hormuz
This courageous beaver,
Swims underwater -without a snorkel
Bubbling, artfully making a comeback to the shores
Drones above hardly take notice
Hey! Was it their noise, another sottise!
Good swimmers, beavers learn to steer and navigate with their tail
And on land, they "tail up" to gain a few inches to gnaw down a tree
Or just gnaw to gnaw
When in Ancient Egypt beaver damns flooded the
Bathroom of Queen Cleopatra
And plumbers didn't know how to deal with the
Glug, glug, glug.
It was said weeks were needed
To debug her drain that was full of slugs
Today our Beaver paddles through oily waters
In a military zone where
Hydrocarbons seep into its thick fur.
At night this industrious Egyptian mammal
Dreams
Not of green forests nor polka dot mushrooms,
Rather of large pipes seeping black oil on the sand that reflect a dark sky
Dreams of oil tankers without
Transponders going Ping! Ping! Ping!
The beaver hears a splash and squints its eyes
It sees an upside down black duck
Dunking its orange beak into the murky waters
The usual
Then it edges towards a metal door emitting a low sounding buzz
It's an uranium cache,
a good place to spend the night
And snuggle against the desert's cold
Yet weeks later the beaver's tail glows in the darkness
Even the silent hippos take notice of the freaky scenario
The hard working beaver knows there is a price to pay
Hormuz, a household name, is a nightmare
The furry vessel knows it is traversing a critical line
Eat, eat, its Mum would say
Some crispy scarabs and chewy worms will do
Kismet has it that this mighty animal is always
Humble of its achievements.
Just examine its teeth shining from having chewed through a recent pipeline.
