Page 2 - The Gluckman Occasional Number Two
P. 2
Helix the Bat
How He Got His Name
To Debbie Tint, another fan of Ernst Haeckel
Consider the plight of Zoomer the bat,
Who lived in a cave and never got fat:
The other young pups ate bushels of bugs,
But Zoomer did not—now just why was that?
With siblings galore and Flapper his friend,
He’d hang out all day—that is, just suspend
From rocky roof ledges gripped by his toes;
Young Zoomer was happy not to descend.
At dusk the colony suddenly stirred
From fitful slumber and gossip half-heard,
Relinquishing each an upside-down perch
To launch into space as leather wings whirred.
Their number so vast they blackened the sky
Already darkened by night’s spreading dye:
A river of bats released in a rush
Of swirling, whirling and winding on high.
