Raadhaa Rhymes 8

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71.
There waits the cockroach
Bristling his moustache;
Switch on the light;
And in his fright,
Your feet he will approach!

72. Cuckoo
There goes the cuckoo:
Ku-ooh! Ku-ooh! Ku-ooh!
Poets have praised her
Over a thousand an year;
Still she knows only to:
Ku-ooh! Ku-ooh! Ku-ooh!

73.
But look at her clever cousin
The crow very Indian:
He stole aloo chips,
Now steals silicon chips;
Whatever you throw in your rubbish bin!

74.
A very old peacock
Couldn’t see in the dark;
It went to an optician
To get a prescription;
Who charged a million rupees
For its thousand ‘eyes’!

75.
A very old Elephant
Went to a Dentist
To get a set of false teeth;
He told the Elephant:
‘You already have a set;
Very nicely bent
And made of Ivory’!

76.
A very old Mysore Tiger
With a coat badly faded
Went to a U.S. Tailor
To get a new one made;
He told the old Tiger:
‘Yellow Stripes are out of fashion,
My Nation is in Recession,
Take one of Stars and Stripes,
I will give you at a cheaper price,
At Rupees sixty a Dollar;
Dear old Mysore Tiger!
Whiter Stripes and brighter Stars,
My dear Mysore Tiger!
Mysore Tiger, Mysore Tiger! Mysore Tiger’!

77.
A very old Woodpecker
Said to the old Kingfisher:
‘My beak is getting blunter
The bark is getting tougher,
And I am suffering from hunger’;
Said the old Kingfisher
To the old Woodpecker:
‘I am no longer the king here,
The fish are getting cleverer,
I too suffer from hunger’;
The latter stopped hunting fish,
The former poking for woodlice;
They both went to the restaurateur,
Ordered some bread and butter
And lived happily ever after!

78.
A very old Government Bull
No longer felt useful;
With cows and calves so youthful
He felt very miserable;
He went to the Government Hospital
And found a placard; ‘Houseful’;
The Matron there was kind to him
And referred him to an Old Age Home;
There he felt merry and gay
With old cows and heaps of hay!

79.
A very old Spider
Said to the older Fly:
‘You can come nearer, dear,
My fiber’s gotten dry’;
Said the older Fly
To the Spider:
‘I can’t come nearer dear,
I can no more FLY!’

80.
Said the Bed Bug
To the Rug:
‘I’ll send you to the cleaners
To get you suave and snug’;
Said the Rug
To the Bed Bug:
‘And then if you cease to hug
I shall stay clean and green!’