The Flamingo
Inspired by reading a chorus of spirits in a German play
FIRST VOICE.
Oh! tell me have you ever seen a red, long-leg’d Flamingo?
Oh! tell me have you ever yet seen him the water in go?
SECOND VOICE.
Oh! yes at Bowling-Green I’ve seen a red long-leg’d Flamingo,
Oh! yes at Bowling-Green I’ve there seen him the water in go.
FIRST VOICE.
Oh! tell me did you ever see a bird so funny stand-o
When forth he from the water comes and gets upon the land-o?
Second Voice
No! in my life I ne’er did see a bird so funny stand-o
When forth he from the water comes and gets upon the land-o.
First Voice
He has a leg some three feet long, or near it, so they say, Sir.
Stiff upon one alone he stands, t’other he stows away, Sir.
Second Voice
And what an ugly head he’s got! I wonder that he’d wear it.
But rather more I wonder that his long, thin neck can bear it.
First Voice
And think, this length of neck and legs (no doubt they have their
uses)
Are members of a little frame, much smaller than a goose’s!
Both
Oh! isn’t he a curious bird, that red, long-leg’d Flamingo?
A water bird, a gawky bird, a sing’lar bird, by jingo!
Lewis Gaylord Clark.