The Greedy Python

Half hidden in the jungle green The biggest snake there's ever been Wound back and forth and in between. The giant snake was very strong And very very very long He had a monstrous appetite His stomach stretched from left to right. He quickly gobbled in one bite Whatever creatures came in sight A mouse that scampered to and fro, A frog that jumped up and from below, A bat that hung from his left toe, A fish that swam a bit too slow, A bird that flew a bit too low, A porcupine still half asleep, A monkey who was in mid-leap, A leopard sitting in a tree, A buffalo who came to see. An elephant complete with trunk, Was swallowed in a single chunk. "I'm far too big to eat!" he cried. "Oh, no you're not!" the snake replied. At last the python's meal was done And he lay resting in the sun. The animals inside his skin Were making quite a dreadful din; And when they all began to kick The snake began to feel quite sick. He coughed the whole lot up again -- Each one of them -- and there were ten. He soon felt better, and what's more Was hungrier than just before. He hadn't learned a single thing: His greed was quite astonishing. He saw his own tail, long and curved And thought that lunch was being served He closed his jaws on his own rear Then swallowed hard ... and disappeared!