The oxpecker cleans the rhino
and the rhino feeds it meat
Both need the other
it really is quite neat
but the oxpecker complains
“there’s not enough ticks!”
and the rhino will cry
“there’s enough as it is!”
so then they’re not friends
and they’ll leave each other again
but surely we all know
that if separated, both drop dead
so the toxic relationship
muted by mutualism
unfriended then, best friends now
will continue to spasm