ANSI Animals
  D. Titchenell Aug. 10, 1990

Fiona's books show ducks and hares,
Gorillas, pigs and panda bears.
It looked a useful thing to do 
--To take them with us to the zoo.

It seems that everywhere we go
There is so very much to know
And every single creature there
Was formed with some creative flair.

A camel?  -- no that isn't true
Mine's got one hump, you've got two.
This illustrator had some fun
My rhino's two horned, you have one.  

A huge black pig, that can't be right
My pig's small and cute and white.
This parrot's like the one I saw
But here they call it a macaw.

The alligator's traits confuse
I try to find what I should use 
To tell him from the crocodile. 
Mommy says its in the smile.

But for students tempted to despair
Of coping with creative flair
Science, in time, perchance may yield
A means to simplify the field.

For Uncle Bob says: once man gleans
The key to chromosomes and genes,
I shouldn't be at all surprised
If all the beasts were standardized.


VERSES ON FIONA'S SESQUIANNUAL BIRTHDAY
            March 23, 1991
                  
          Welcoming Visitors

Descanso's pond serves bird and beast
While visitors watch from the east.
But Fiona much prefers the west,
The woods where quail and egrets nest.

"Beside the lake, beneath the trees"
(No daffodils, nor any breeze) 
She'd feed the transient ducks and they 
Would honk and quack that ducky way.

But when she thought to enter in  
A sign appeared where none had been 
That put her nose quite out-of-joint: 
"No visitors beyond this point"

No doubt an effort to provide
A refuge on that western side,
For visiting foul, a place to breed,
(that is, assuming ducks can't read)




DESTINY

Paths would twist, twine, and connect 
And where a pair would intersect
A choice of four ways would appear:
Forth, left, and right -- and to the rear.

In each such case a choice was made,
But not by plan overtly laid
A coin-toss served as sole resource 
For Uncle Bob to set our course.

Head/tails Tails/heads were spun in turn
Each pair enabled us to learn
Which path of four to thread our way
As chance defined our route that day.

But by a chance, what do we mean?
How can we know what force unseen
Directs that whirling coin in flight
When we think "whither? left or right?"

To Bob no mystery remained --
Once odds are tallied, all's explained
I think mayhap Fiona knew,
But she'll forget before she's two