An Unexpected Emperor

[Stephen Whiteside]

I'm feeling a little bit better.
Why, though, I really don't know.
Can't tell you just what was the metter. (Picking up the accent now, too.)
I now have some ice, but no snow.

There was sand. There were stones. There were twigs.
All of them deep in my belly,
But they reached out for one of those rigs
(You've seen the report on the telly?)

That pass your intestinal tract,
And allow you to have a good squiz
(It isn't a fiction, it's fact)
And find where the small problem is.

I shouldn't, though, label it small.
For me, it was really quite big,
But now I don't have it at all
(Thanks to that endoscope rig).

They've offered me now a new start.
My tummy is feeling a treat.
That surgeon had mastered his art.
I really will watch what I eat.

Fresh fish instead of old stones,
A mussel instead of a twig.
I have a good vibe through my bones.
Soon I'll be healthy and big.

[warooa]

I see they've operated on The Emperor to remove the bulk of the sand, and administered laxatives to encourage the swift passage of any remnants.

marty

[Stephen Whiteside]

'Happy Feet' is heading home, oh what a joyful day!
Lots of kids have signed a card to send him on his way,
But will he get it safely home? That's what worries me.
It surely will be ruined when it joins him in the sea.

P'raps he'll get it laminated. That would keep it safe,
And tuck it underneath a flipper. Surely it would chafe?
Maybe he could ride it, like a penguin boogie board,
And tie it to his ankle with a length of nylon cord.

Surely that would cramp his style. Penguins need to dive.
The Southern Ocean doesn't give much chance for hanging five.
It is a lovely gesture, but I just can't see the need.
Last time I did the research, penguins don't know how to read!

[Heather]

Funny Stephen! I like the idea of a penguin on a boogie board. Perhaps you should write children's movie scripts...

[Stephen Whiteside]

Well, 'Happy Feet' has vanished somewhere in the Southern Ocean.
Researchers and scientists have not the slightest notion
Where he is or what's transpired - the line has just gone dead.
Perhaps another leopard seal or killer whale's been fed.

Perhaps the Southern Ocean's fearsome swell loosed his transmitter,
And when he's home he'll pop up quick on Facebook, say, or Twitter.
But wouldn't we still hear it as it rode each freezing wave?
Loud and clear and certain was the signal that it gave.

They tell me we'd not hear it if it lay inside the belly
Of a predator that turned those cheerful, happy feet to jelly.
Perhaps he simply wasn't built to cut it in the wild,
And that is why he sought New Zealand's climate - temp'rate, mild.

Which rather makes me wonder if it weren't a wayward notion
To drop a penguin singly in the middle of the ocean.
I do recall the video. He wasn't keen to leave.
No doubt there is a keeper in a zoo tonight who'll grieve.

There are no easy answers. It's a world of shifting sand -
A life that's short and stormy, or a life that's long and bland,
For long and bland is what he'd face in safe captivity.
I'm not sure what I'd opt for if the choice was up to me.

[Bob Pacey]

At least they gave it a chance Stephen.

I pulled a big grasshopper out of the pool filter the other day and kept it on a box till it dried out and
let it go the next morning.

Got about two feet before a kookaburra snapped it. Must have been watching me the whole time the little bugger.


That's nature.


Bob

[Stephen Whiteside]

Amazing story, Bob.

[Bob Pacey]

I never thought I would enjoy working outside so much after years in an office and stores Stephen.

All the wildllife in coming back out now that all the people have gone, Birds, goannas, possums, Frill necked lizards, turkeys and doves, Hundred of doves.

Log onto the Coolwaters Holiday Village site for a look.

reckon I could retire here.


Bob