The Little Hyena Poem by Herbert Nehrlich

The Little Hyena

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Three males were facing off
with a hyena during dinner.
It was the little creature's single cough
that turned the closest male into a grinner.
Just as she tried to sneak away
with hyoid bone and deli tongue,
three lions ordered her to stay
and then the oldest lion flung
hyena and her bloody loot
into the hippo desert dome,
the hippos found her rather cute
although to them she was a gnome.
They formed a circle now around her
to let her eat while they observed,
the lion's paws thus never found her,
though the hyena, scared, unnerved
swallowed too fast, (she was provoked) ,
and suddenly felt very ill.
She would most certainly have choked
(that's why you never overfill) ,
but Mama Hippo quickly acted
she grabbed hyena in her jaws,
then shook her hard, and the impacted
big bolus came, thus Newton's Laws
had, once again saved a hyena,
(last week it was a ballerina) .

So grateful was the little tot
that she decided on the spur
to seek asylum on the spot
those fatsos truly suited her.

From that dark day she slept at night
in a big flab of hippo fold,
there in the desert's lunar light
and kept her head out of the cold.

Once in a while, when fog rolled in
the oldest lion had an inkling,
(he was the one who'd always grin) ,
to catch her when she was out tinkling

but he soon found that Hippomum
would waltz around, give him a stare,
she was as agile as Van Damme
and told him nicely, 'don't you dare'.

But in the end, the Mama died
a hunk of meat and many tears,
the others told her as she cried
and felt a rush of ancient fears,

'You must not hesitate, young lady
so eat now but don't overfill
since Mama died where it is shady
we doubt that anybody will

come and disturb us at this meal.'
They ate from dawn to sundown's glow,
Hyena though, did somehow feel
that her big Mama, as a pro

a bodyguard, had been her keeper,
and that she needed to replace
her, just in case the bloody Reaper
would show his ugly, grinning face.

But, as so often things are put
on the backburner, then forgotten.
She thought tomorrow would be good,
and this decision was a rotten

and faulty one, as you will see.
That night three lions came and pounced
just when hyena went to wee.
And in the morn' it was announced

that one big lion ate and choked
when he had swallowed too much meat,
next to the mama there he croaked.
Two other lions came to eat.

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