Looks are Deceiving
“I see an optical illusion”
I told my friend today
Turns out it really wasn’t
It simply looked that way
Limerick
A senator out on vacation
Decided to talk to the nation
So he spoke from a ship
Moving at a fast clip
It quite a deck oration
Meanest
The meanest chicken
In the pen
Is widely known
As Attila the Hen
Uplifting
“Welcome to Plastic Surgery Anonymous”
“I’m very happy to say”
“Looking out across this crowd”
“I see many new faces today
Old Ages
My history teacher
Goes on and on
Why does she
Babylon?
The Preposterosaurus – A Channeling of Shel Silverstein
I had a weird dream late last night
Where I was in a deep, dark forest
And the oddball scientist with me
Was making a Preposterosaurus
A Preposterosaurus, I quickly learned
Could be scary or most endearing
It’s made by hybridizing animals
With bioengineering
The problem she was having
Was filing patent claims
In order to do that, she had to invent
Descriptive animal names
For example, there was
A bit of fuss
Over calling one a Duck-billopotamus
Or a Hippopotaplatypus
A similar problem
Came with the Octopus/Walrus
Is the best name for it a Octolus
Or perhaps a Walropus?
It was tough to combine a rhino
With a lowly ostrich
But doing so, which name to use – an Ostrinoceros
Or a Rhinocerich?
He made a marine/terrestrial blend
In which everyone could revel
But is it a Tasmanian Devifish
Or just a Jellydevil?
For hybrids of swamp creatures
With toothy smiles
Is it be better to call them Crocogators
Or Allidiles?
Should a creature that’s part chameleon
And part opossum
Be called an Opossaleon
Or a Chameleossum?
Spiky organism hybrids
Look really fine
But are they porcudillos
Or Armidipines?
And last, there was an amazing three way mix
Twixt a butterfly, a head lice, and an oak
I was anxious to hear its amazing name
But unfortunately, I awoke
For Jerry
(An old friend of ours, and anyone who ever knew him, recently passed away. He was a Corvallis icon on his bi/tricycle)
Our good friend Jerry’s gone away
And we shall miss him every day
It’s thanks to him that we now know
How much good can fit in a soul
An irreplaceable
Corvallis icon
Here’s to you, Jerry
“Bike on”
RIP
Kevin Ahern is an Oregon State University Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry and Biophysics. In his retirement, he writes verses.
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