ESCAPE!

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Escape! is another longer poem and is one that has evolved gradually over the past few years. I have several different versions, some longer, some shorter, but this is my current favourite. Once again, it grew naturally out from one line; in this case I enjoyed saying 'a panda and a' and after I had that bit the rest was easy. 

Escape!

A panda and a kangaroo, 

In next-door cages at the zoo,

Were bored of seeing the same old view,

And spoke of finding pastures new.

By day the pair would scheme their schemes,

At night the friends would dream their dreams,

Fed up with zoo-life, tired of their lot,

They made a plan and hatched a plot.

One morning, Kangaroo stayed in bed,

Moaning loudly, he clutched his head,

Then lay on the floor, ever so still,

So the zoo-keeper thought he must be ill.

While this provided a vital distraction,

Panda quietly sprung into action.

With the keeper bent over 'roo, down on his knees,

Panda reached through the bars, stole his wallet and keys.

Suddenly Kangaroo jumped up off the floor,

Bounced over the keeper and out through the door.

Whilst the keeper stood up, incandescent with rage,

Panda calmly unlocked the door of his cage. 

Out through the zoo the fugitives scampered,

Ensuring the keepers were suitably hampered,

By releasing the tigers from out of their pit,

Which slowed down the pursuit a considerable bit. 

They were seen at the gift-shop by a couple of boys,

So disguised themselves as cuddly toys,

They kept perfectly still as the keepers rushed past,

But their escape was now blocked; they looked on aghast.

“I have an idea! They’ll never expect it,

We’ll smash our way out of the rear fire exit!”

So back through the zoo the two convicts stole,

Picking up on their way a telegraph pole.

They fashioned the pole as a battering ram,

And ran at the exit and hit-it – KAB-BAM!

The gate was quite sturdy and secured with a chain,

They charged with the pole again and again.

They inevitably made a considerable din,

And Panda could sense the net closing in,

“I don’t think it’s working,” he started to say,

But just as he spoke, the hinges gave way.

Kangaroo and Panda burst out through the gate,

Hailed down a taxi, made good their escape.

“Where to?” asked the driver, not believing his eyes,

“The airport!”, “The docks!” came two different replies. 

“But I've booked us a flight overnight to Shanghai”

Said Panda, wiping a tear from his eye,

'Roo said, “There's a ship bound for Sydney today,

I thought we could hide on it and stowaway”

“Honestly sport, I'd feel like a failure,

If I didn't end up in the bush in Australia”,

“As for me”, said the panda, “What could be finer,”

“Than settling down in a forest in China?”

So each of the friends went their separate way,

But never forgot that extraordinary day,

Right there in the taxi, they shook paws and parted,

And each headed off to get new lives started. 

By Pete Thomas