"oxpecker" poems
Oxpecker:
"Impala,
may I offer my services to you?
I can clean you of your ticks and insects;
They must cause you great discomfort!
I'll eat them and keep you free of unwanted parasites.
I'll also clean your ears of wax and dandruff, helping you hear your predators approach."
Impala:
"Oxpecker,
I would be grateful for your services,
it sounds too good to be true!
What's in it for you?"
Oxpecker:
"Impala,
I only want to help you with your troubled condition.
I see your suffering,
I want you to be happy.
Your smile of relief will be my payment.
In order to carry out these burdens of care,
will you grant me permission to perch upon your back,
watching over you,
for your future well-being of course."
Elephant:
"Impala,
don't believe the tick birds lies.
He'll feed on your pests and then on you!
His motives are sinister and self serving."
Oxpecker:
"Elephant,
you spread malicious lies about me,
all because I refused a seat on your back!
You don't suffer as much as the impala,
he needs me more than you do!
YOU'RE a jealous, spiteful creature!"
Oxpecker:
"Impala,
the elephant's trying to trick you so I'll take a seat on his back and care for him instead.
I know YOU'RE smart,
don't fall for his deceptions."
Impala:
"Elephant,
you won't trick me with your duplicity!
You want the oxpecker all for yourself!
I'll accept the oxpeckers invitation at once
so you no longer try and steal him away.
YOU ARE a jealous, spiteful creature!"
Elephant:
"Impala,
remember this day!
I warned you,
you chose to ignore me!
You've made a decision based in fear.
You take the word of a creature that eats other creatures,
you'll suffer for your rashness!"
Sep 20, 2016
Sep 20, 2016 at 5:18 AM UTC
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
Sep 27, 2024
Sep 27, 2024 at 6:51 AM UTC
Riding without a saddle
Careful!
Do you hear me, oxpecker?
Mar 30, 2020
Mar 30, 2020 at 3:03 AM UTC