The Changwon Chinchilla wondered what he could do,
In a truck on its way to Alliteration Zoo.
The Tel Aviv Toucan, wise as a sage,
Offered advice, from a neighboring cage.
The Chinchilla, he explained, was so very small,
He could slip though his bars and then climb down the wall.
Heeding the advice, the Chinchilla climbed down,
Past Monrovia Muskrat, a dull shade of brown.
Then the Port-au-Prince Peacock, a bright shade of green
And South Leon Lemur –caged up in between…
The Arlington Aardvark who sat on a stone,
And Ann Arbor Anteater, in a corner alone.
The Carcar Capybara, looked up from his pen.
A hopeful squawk came from the Hanover Hen.
Kalamazoo Kangaroo began to hop up and down,
And the Zanzibar Zebra spun his body around.
It was the Halifax Hedgehog, most hopeful of all,
Who cheered a big cheer, when his friend reached the wall…
In the back of the truck, high up on a shelf,
The key cabinet stood, alone by itself.
Unfortunately for the animals that day,
The door was too heavy, for Chinchilla to sway.
But he had one last Idea, before he climbed down,
He went cage to cage, switching tags all around.
The Monrovia Muskrat was now from Key West.
The Tel Aviv Toucan was from Budapest.
The Zebra’s tag was now Casablanca,
The Lemur’s tag said Colombo (capital of Sri Lanka).
The zookeeper climbed aboard, once the truck reached the zoo,
And seeing the tags said, “Well this simply won’t do.”
He went to the cabinet and got out the key,
Opened all of the cages, and let them all free.