Limerick: Goats In A Tree Poem by Kim Barney
Limerick: Goats In A Tree
I once saw many goats in a tree,
And I asked myself, how can that be?
Is my brain on the loose?
Is he here, Doctor Seuss?
Is my cranium full of debris?
Grown almost exclusively in Morocco, the Argania is a rare and protected species after years of over-farming and clear-cutting. The tree produces an annual fruit crop, and it is this delicious morsel that attracts legions of local goats who hop up into the branches to pick out the fruit.
The animals stand on the impossibly precarious branches and get down to their seasonal feast. Far from just a single ambitious goat climbing a single tree, the animals tend to swarm into the branches in number.
Local farmers condone and even cultivate this bizarre feeding practice, keeping the goats away from the trees while the fruit matures and releasing them at the right time. There is also a secondary benefit to the goats' habits which is found in their poop. After the goats finish eating the fruit and nuts off the tree, they pass valuable clumps of seeds which are then pressed to create the sought-after Argan oil.
written 15 December 2016
:) I remember seeing this picture somewhere...Argan Oil - the promise of youth! A great limerick!
Ah, This is so cool! .. And interesting to know! .. Awesome! .. Definite Definite 5 Stars! ..++++++++++++++++++++
i vote for debris. fruits AND NUTS! COULD IT BE? goats and fruits AND NUTS..........in the tree? ! ! ! maybe not only is it a photo-shopped photo [see another's comments below], but Kim's brain has also been photo-shopped? ? hmm. not sure i'd want pooped-from-goats oil on my salad. bri ;) thanks for the Poet's Notes. but, how can one be sure [see other comments again] that this is the SAME PHOTO? ? ? aren't there at least two trees left in Morocco?
Bri, I used to use my laptop to post poems to Poem Hunter, especially while we were in Brazil. However, now that we are home, I usually use my desktop computer. The day I wrote my poem, I knew that I had a photo of goats in a tree stored on my laptop (it had probably been stored there since we were in Brazil) , but I was using the desktop that day and didn't feel like starting up the laptop just to get that photo, so I just did a Google search for goats in a tree and that's when I learned all about the goats in Morocco. Up until then, I didn't know if the picture had been photo-shopped or not, either. If you do the same Google search that I did, you will see many different pictures of the goats in the trees. I tried to pick the best one. I have still never checked to see if it is the same as the one stored on my laptop or not.
A goat in a tree...fantastic limerick, Kim! i deem you king of the limericks!
Thanks, Theo. Check out Wes Vogler and Kelly Kurt. They have some really good ones, too. Wes is the one who told me that I should write more limericks.
Thank you for the limerick and thank you for passing on some background to that picture. I have seen the photo before but I thought it had been photo-shopped. What an intriguing history!
Another great limerick. I almost used that picture in my poem: Farm Animals #5 (Limerick) . Then I found one with a dog hugging a goat. It was too cute to resist.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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4/25/2024 11:04:59 AM # 1.0.0.1119
A lovely limerick. I'm delighted to read it. Thanks for sharing.10