PRESTBURY, MY PLATYPUS

There's no one quite as scruffy
As my intellectual platypus;
Compared with him, my ginger cat
Is really quite a natty puss.

His one consuming interest
Is people such as Lysippus,
And Oedipus, and Leucippus
And some guy called Aristippus. *

You'd think an ordinary platypus
Had better things to do
Than spend his days in swotting up
What most folk never knew.

But there it is: I'm landed with
A tame encyclopędia,
And now he's looking for a job
Researching for the media.

* I agree ! I agree ! I had to look them up, too. To save you the trouble, and to show how terribly kind and helpful I can be despite what people say, Lysippus was a Greek sculptor; Leucippus was a Greek philosopher, and so was Aristippus. Oedipus ? Oh, he just loved his mother.

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