Meteors light the midnight sky,
Streaking the darksome night,
Piercing the constellations,
In their swift celestial flight.
Beware the Bengal Tiger,
Orange and black and quick;
Hidden in the thicket dense,
Where leaves are wet and slick.
See the tree-bound rabbit,
Sitting on the pine tree limb;
He only moves in the dark of night,
Subtle, gray and grim.
No hunter ever saw him;
No owl could sink his claws;
For he’s the mystery creature,
Obeying mystery’s laws.
Morning finds him back in place,
Sitting on his pine tree bough,
Solid as a frozen duck,
No one quite knows how!
Nameless creatures live below,
Under the shifting earth;
In the dark they wriggle up,
Biting with ceaseless mirth!
Life is full of pain and sorrow,
Or so mine often seems;
At other times I find it filled,
With rich Shakespearean dreams!
