Pelicans We - Cosmo Sheldrake

King and Queen of the Pelicans we;

No other Birds so grand we see!

None but we have feet like fins!

With lovely leathery throats and chins!

Ploffskin, Pluffskin, Pelican jee!

We think no birds so happy as we!

Plumpskin, Ploshkin, Pelican jill!

We think so then, and we thought so still!

We live on the Nile.

The Nile we love.

By night we sleep on the cliffs above.

By day we fish, and at eve we stand

On long bare islands of yellow sand.

And when the sun sinks slowly down

And the great rock walls grow dark and brown,

Where the purple river rolls fast and dim

And the ivory Ibis starlike skim,

Wing to wing we dance around, —

Stamping our feet with a flumpy sound, —

Opening our mouths as Pelicans ought,

And this is the song we nightly snort:

King and Queen of the Pelicans we;

No other Birds so grand we see!

None but we have feet like fins!

With lovely leathery throats and chins!

Ploffskin, Pluffskin, Pelican jee!

We think no birds so happy as we!

Plumpskin, Ploshkin, Pelican jill!

We think so then, and we thought so still!