Page 8 - The Gluckman Occasional Number Two

But Flapper was a more practical sort;
He knew the colony needed support
From Zoomer if ever they were again
To capture those bugs and not come up short.

He rattled his wings and issued a shriek.
“Now listen to me, friends—it’s not so bleak;
The answer is in front of your faces:
Consider Zoomer—he’s not just a freak!”

“You know he can’t sense a bug in the dark;
But nobody yet has cared to remark
Upon the fact he is staying alive,
When all his attempts were wide of the mark.”

“That’s odd!” the crowd muttered. “How can it be?”
And Flapper replied, “You must do as he.
It’s hard to change but easy to follow:
You don’t have to hear, you don’t have to see.”

The bats agreed they had nothing to lose
By following Zoomer; they couldn’t refuse—
You’d have to have cats in your clock tower
To think starvation is better to choose!

At sunset they struggled weak and weary
Back to the lake; the silence was eerie:
Their leader told them: “Turn off your sonar!”—
A tactic of which many were leery.