Far away and elsewhere
Is a place we do not dare
To go alone
For there the leopard and the tiger
All the steamy hot day wander
Silently and soft of paw.
Through the jungle thickets
You can hear the sound of crickets
Scir scirring in one's ear
And the caw caw caw
Of the parakeet
Telling us he is near.
But when they silent fall
The trees loom close and tall
And menace seems to flow
As paths more tangled grow
For there is no place to go
But on into the jungle.
Dark sullen silence all about
Only the drip drip drip from the leaves
Then all at once a noise breaks out
Monkeys jabber, cockatoos shout
Ear splitting shrieks resound
As every creature joins the fray.
Only the great ape sits quiet in his tree
Amused by all this levity
Then stretches out one hairy arm
And swings himself into the air
From branch to branch with ne'er a care,
For he is lord of the jungle way up there.
Margery Rehman
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/far-away-and-elsewhere-a-poem-for-a-child/
