Reginald Aldridge Fenwick-Forbes
Though everyone called him Raff
Had great big eyes and long curly tongue
And a face that could make you laugh
With his long cerlickety clackety legs
And his wobbly knobbly knees
He would gallop about
With his tongue hanging out
Quite as odd as you please
He never got called indoors you see
As many of us would do
For his mother believed it was good to be free
Far better than being in the zoo
Where some of his friends were glued to their phones
Oblivious to life around
Where old giraffes with crochety bones
Turned down their hearing aids’ sound
Raff was enjoying the great outdoors
Dangeroos as it could be
Tripping on roots
And stretching for shoots
At the top of the tallest tree
His mother would say
“Reginald Forbes!”
(In that “Mother-knows-best kind of tone!)
“You don’t have to do what the other kids do
It’s ok to be alone”
So Raff didn’t do what the other giraffes
Did with their time all day
He tried new things and if he got stuck
He would think till he found a way
He would blink and think and talk to himself
(in a giraffey kind of way)
And sometimes he’d even laugh at himself
When he had something funny to say
He wandered around the Savannah plains
With his family and other giraffes
And noticed sometimes
There were some of his kind who didn’t know how to laugh
This sort of puzzled our busy giraffe
Who couldn’t fathom at all
Why he was the only one on the plains
Who seemed to be having a ball
Life seemed to be such a serious affair
To some of the other giraffes
When Reginald Forbes just wanted to play
And do things just for laughs
Why did everything have to be
Done under such a cloud?
This was terribly terribly hard
For a giraffe who lived out loud
So Reginald Aldridge Fenwick Forbes
Put on a serious face
He tried and he tried to be serious inside
As he moped about the place
“Reginald Aldridge Fenwick Forbes!”
His mother implored one day
“What on earth are you doing inside
Why don’t you go out to play?”
“Oh Mother,” our dear little Raffey replied
“I just want to be like the others
I don’t want to play on the plains outside!
Can’t you be like the other mothers?
Just leave me alone! You’re ruining my life!
As he stamped his giraffey paws
I’m a big giraffe now. I can do what I want
And I don’t want to play outdoors!
So his mother consulted the other giraffes
The wisest of those she knew
And they all said, The Oldest Giraffe
Would know just what to do
The Oldest Giraffe put on his specs
As down his nose he stared
He poked a bit here and prodded there
And he finally declared
“Reginald Aldridge Fenwick Forbes
Once so daring and brave and bold
Once running around on savannahs and plains
You’re not sick! You’re just getting old!”
“But I don’t want to get old,” said Reginald Forbes
To his wrinkly and wise physician
“Well then, I suggest you do your best
To get out of this querulous condition”
“Only you know the way to stay young and brave
And quick and bright and bold
And trying to be like the others you see
Will simply make you grow old”
So Reginald Forbes
Decided right then, it was time to go back to the plain
He put down his phone and straightened his legs
And galloped around again
He galloped and galloped and galloped around
He laughed and he laughed and he laughed
He talked to himself and he laughed at himself
And he thought and he thunk and looked after himself
And he didn’t care what they thought of himself
The others who thought so much of themselves
And he ate what he wanted and climbed up a tree
Not quite where you’d think a giraffe could be
He babbled baboon and zebbed with the zebras
and hipped with the hippos and all
He did everything everyone else wouldn’t do
Though everyone thought he belonged in a zoo
He stood on the plain and he shouted his name:
I AM REGINALD ALDRIDGE FENWICK FORBES
And NOTHING RHYMES WITH THAT!
Magnificent...
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