Ode to a Suicidal Emu

Old Emu! Swift and canny; our ancients certainly could see How proud you were; and by your looks you should be!

Oh! Nobel and lithe; I know that you are swift when hunted And what a choice meal you are when confronted – By spear or boomerang or much later the gun.

But I would prefer Old Emu my dear old mate

For you to run the country you love with your

young and your peers The buzzards though had a right old feast when they ate Your carcass broken and thrown through a grinding of gears. For ye stepped in the way of an engine that shows the frailty of both man and beast! The engine ruined or inoperable at least; and emu your life expectancy decreased!